Suchergebnisse

With the aim of promoting national food security, the Vietnamese government enforces the designation of around 35 per cent of agricultural land strictly for paddy rice cultivation. We investigate the economic effects of adjusting this policy, using an economy-wide model of Vietnam with detailed modelling of region-specific land use, agricultural activity, poverty and food security measures. Our results show that the removal of the rice land designation policy increases real private consumption by an average of 0.35 per cent per annum over 2011–2030, while also reducing poverty, improving food security and contributing to more nutritionally balanced diets among Vietnamese households.

AbstractClimate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of natural hazards such as hurricanes. With a severe shortage of affordable housing in the United States, renters may be uniquely vulnerable to disaster‐related housing disruptions due to increased hazard exposure, physical vulnerability of structures, and socioeconomic disadvantage. In this work, we construct a panel dataset consisting of housing, socioeconomic, and hurricane disaster data from counties in 19 states across the East and Gulf Coasts of the United States from 2009 to 2018 to investigate how the frequency and intensity of a hurricane correspond to changes in median rent and housing affordability (the interaction between rent prices and income) over time. Using a two‐stage least square random‐effects regression model, we find that more intense prior‐year hurricanes correspond to increases in median rents via declines in housing availability. The relationship between hurricanes and rent affordability is more complex, though the occurrence of a hurricane in a given year or the previous year reduces affordable rental housing, especially for counties with higher percentages of renters and people of color. Our results highlight the multiple challenges that renters are likely to face following a hurricane, and we emphasize that disaster recovery in short‐ and medium‐term should focus on providing safe, stable, and affordable rental housing assistance.

[EN] In clinical practice, reducing the burden of persistent atrial fibrillation by pharmacological means is challenging. We explored if blocking the background and the acetylcholine-activated inward rectifier potassium currents (I-K1 and I-KACh) could be antiarrhythmic in persistent atrial fibrillation. We thus tested the hypothesis that blocking I-K1 and I-KACh with chloroquine decreases the burden of persistent atrial fibrillation. We used patch clamp to determine the IC50 of I-K1 and I-KACh block by chloroquine and molecular modeling to simulate the interaction between chloroquine and Kir2.1 and Kir3.1, the molecular correlates of I-K1 and I-KACh. We then tested, as a proof of concept, if oral chloroquine administration to a patient with persistent atrial fibrillation can decrease the arrhythmia burden. We also simulated the effects of chloroquine in a 3D model of human atria with persistent atrial fibrillation. In patch clamp the IC50 of I-K1 block by chloroquine was similar to that of I-KACh. A 14-day regimen of oral chloroquine significantly decreased the burden of persistent atrial fibrillation in a patient. Mathematical simulations of persistent atrial fibrillation in a 3D model of human atria suggested that chloroquine prolonged the action potential duration, leading to failure of reentrant excitation, and the subsequent termination of the arrhythmia. The combined block of I-K1 and I-KACh can be a targeted therapeutic strategy for persistent atrial fibrillation. ; This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants R21HL138064, R01HL129136, by the Direccion General de Politica Cientifica de la Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO 2016/088), and by the ACM SIGHPC/Intel Computational & Data Science fellowship. ; Tobón, C.; Palacio, LC.; Chidipi, B.; Slough, DP.; Tran, T.; Tran, N.; Reiser, M. (2019). The Antimalarial Chloroquine Reduces the Burden of Persistent Atrial Fibrillation. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 10:1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2019.01392 ; S ; 1 ; 12 ; 10 ...

PURPOSE: Although medical students will influence the future U.S. health care system, their opinions on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have not been assessed since the 2016 presidential election and elimination of key ACA provisions. Understanding medical students' views on health care policy and professional obligations can provide insight into issues that will be shaped by the next generation of physicians. METHOD: From October 2017 to November 2017, the authors conducted an electronic survey of medical students from seven U.S. institutions to elicit opinions regarding the ACA and their professional responsibility to address health policy. Participant demographics and responses were tabulated, and multiple logistic regression models were used to assess the associations of demographic characteristics with student opinions. RESULTS: Completed surveys were returned by 1,660/4,503 (36.9%) eligible medical students. Respondent demographics were similar to national estimates. In total, 89.1% (1,475/1,660) supported the ACA, and 82.0% (1,362/1,660) reported they understood the health care law. Knowledge of the law's provisions was positively associated with support for the ACA (P < .001). Most students (85.8%; 1,423/1,660) reported addressing health policy to be a professional responsibility. Political affiliation was consistently associated with student opinions. CONCLUSIONS: Most medical students support the ACA, with greater levels of support among medical students who demonstrated higher levels of objective knowledge about the law. Furthermore, students indicated a professional responsibility to engage in health policy, suggesting tomorrow's physicians are likely to participate in future health care reform efforts.