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In this review, we first assess the state of agricultural health and safety research as it pertains to the dynamic challenges facing automating agriculture on a warming planet. Then, we turn to social science fields such as rural sociology, science and technology studies, and environmental studies to leverage relevant insights on the introduction of new technologies, environmental risks, and associated workplace hazards. Increased rates of automation in agriculture alongside new risks associated with climate change create the need for anticipatory governance and adaptive research to study novel mechanisms of worker health and safety. The use of the PRISMA framework led to the 137 articles for our review. We identify three themes in the literature on agricultural health and safety: (1) adoption outcomes, (2) discrete cases of health risks, and (3) an emphasis on care and wellbeing in literature on dairy automation Our review led to the identification of research gaps, noting that current research (a) tends to examine these forces separately, instead of together, (b) has not made robust examination of these forces as socially embedded, and (c) has hesitated to examine the broad, transferable themes for how these forces work across industries. In response to these gaps, we suggest that attention to outside disciplines may provide agricultural health and safety research with a toolset to examine needed inquiry into the multiplicity of experiences of rural stakeholders, the industry specific problems arising from automation and climate change, and the socially embedded aspects of agricultural work in the future.

Interdisciplinary research needs innovation. As an action-oriented intervention, this Manifesto begins from the authors’ experiences as social scientists working within interdisciplinary science and technology collaborations in agriculture and food. We draw from these experiences to: 1) explain what social scientists contribute to interdisciplinary agri-food tech collaborations; (2) describe barriers to substantive and meaningful collaboration; and (3) propose ways to overcome these barriers. We encourage funding bodies to develop mechanisms that ensure funded projects respect the integrity of social science expertise and incorporate its insights. We also call for the integration of social scientific questions and methods in interdisciplinary projects from the outset , and for a genuine curiosity on the part of STEM and social science researchers alike about the knowledge and skills each of us has to offer. We contend that cultivating such integration and curiosity within interdisciplinary collaborations will make them more enriching for all researchers involved, and more likely to generate socially beneficial outcomes.

This dissertation examines the paired social and environmental impacts of farmer-driven innovation through on-site interviews and participant observation with US hop growers. Together, these three research articles make an important contribution to environmental and rural sociology along with science and technology studies by showing how farmer-directed science can support more sustainable futures. While most large-scale US farmers are already technologically and economically “locked” into unsustainable practices, hop growers break this mold, using profits resulting from the craft beer boom to innovate their own implements and further develop their own on-farm breeding programs. Using qualitative methods, I examine these growers as a case study, revealing that farmer-driven innovation can result in improvements to environmental sustainability and adaptive capacity. However, I also find that without policy interventions, small farmers are excluded from profitable new technologies and laborers still face unequal exposure to environmental and financial risks. The three articles each examine different aspects of this dynamic: Chapter 2 overviews the contemporary state of Yakima Valley hop farming and describes hop growers’ efforts to “decommodify” hops. Chapter 3 is a “deep dive” study into knowledge-politics involved in producing new genetics at the largest farmer directed hop breeding operation in the US (HBC). Chapter 4 examines the small farmers that operate as an alternative to the large neo-plantation farms indicative of the new US and Yakima-focused hop marketplace.

Scholarship flourishes in inclusive environments where open deliberations and generative feedback expand both individual and collective thinking. Many researchers, however, have limited access to such settings, and most conventional academic conferences fall short of promises to provide them. We have written this Field Report to share our methods for cultivating a vibrant intellectual community within the Science and Technology Studies Food and Agriculture Network (STSFAN). This is paired with insights from 21 network members on aspects that have allowed STSFAN to thrive, even amid a global pandemic. Our hope is that these insights will encourage others to cultivate their own intellectual communities, where they too can receive the support they need to deepen their scholarship and strengthen their intellectual relationships.

This qualitative research explores agri-food issues in contemporary, conventional hybrid seed production and exchange, particularly the sales of high-earning corn and soy hybrids ubiquitous on the farms practicing conventional growing techniques in Northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri. Data for this project is drawn from on-site interviews conducted with sales agronomists working in the NE Kansas and NW Missouri agricultural region. The project asks about the materiality of the hybrid seeds and how sales agronomists see, interact with, and describe seeds, chemicals, and other services to farmer clients. The research reveals a hybrid seed package that bears multiple meanings across different networks of individuals alongside agronomists, a population of non-farming rural community members who feel the losses in population and community resiliency associated with large-farm agriculture but who also feel committed and responsible to the individual wellbeing of their farmer clients. The research also reveals a growing prevalence of precision agriculture services offered by sales agronomists. Drawing from the work of Bennet’s vital materialism (2010) and contemporary revisions of the Deleuze-Guattarian assemblage (DeLanda 2016), this research suggests that automated precision agriculture methods reveal a food regime which distributes agency between many participants, conversely delimiting individual autonomy of the farmer-owner. I suggest that the problems preventing higher numbers of farmers from adopting ecologically sustainable practices may not be individually ideological or economic, but rather problems of agentic capacity, of who/what makes a difference in contemporary agricultural assemblages.

Modulation of sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) receptors in a non-selective manner decreases disease activity in patients with multiple sclerosis but has potential safety concerns. We assessed the safety and efficacy of the oral selective S1P receptor modulator ozanimod in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis. RADIANCE is a combined phase 2/3 trial. Patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis were recruited from 55 academic and private multiple sclerosis clinics in 13 countries across Europe and the USA. Eligible participants were aged 18–55 years, had an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score of 0–5·0, and had either one or more relapses in the previous 12 months, or one or more relapses in the past 24 months and one or more gadolinium-enhancing lesions on MRI in the previous 12 months before screening. Participants were assigned by a computer-generated randomisation sequence in a 1:1:1 ratio to ozanimod (0·5 mg or 1 mg) or matching placebo once daily for 24 weeks by an independent, unmasked, statistical team. Trial participants, study site personnel, MRI assessors, steering committee members, and the study statistician were masked to treatment assignment. To attenuate first-dose cardiac effects, ozanimod was up-titrated from 0·25 mg to 0·5 mg or 1 mg over 8 days. The primary endpoint was the cumulative number of total gadolinium-enhancing MRI lesions measured by an independent MRI analysis centre at weeks 12–24 after treatment initiation. Analysis was by intention to treat. Here, we report results from the 24-week phase 2 trial. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01628393. The 2-year phase 3 trial is ongoing. The first patient was randomised on Oct 18, 2012, and the final visit of the last randomised patient was on May 11, 2014. The intention-to-treat and safety population consisted of 258 participants, 88 were assigned placebo, 87 ozanimod 0·5 mg, and 83 ozanimod 1 mg; 252 (98%) patients completed the assigned treatment. The mean cumulative number of gadolinium-enhancing lesions at weeks 12–24 was 11·1 (SD 29·9) with placebo compared with 1·5 (3·7) with ozanimod 0·5 mg (odds ratio 0·16, 95% CI 0·08–0·30; p<0·0001) and 1·5 (3·4) with ozanimod 1 mg (odds ratio 0·11, 95% CI 0·06–0·21; p<0·0001). Three serious adverse events unrelated to treatment were reported in patients assigned ozanimod 0·5 mg: optic neuritis, somatoform autonomic dysfunction, and cervical squamous metaplasia (HPV-related). No serious infectious or cardiac adverse events were reported, and no cases of macular oedema arose. The most common adverse events in the ozanimod 0·5 mg and 1 mg groups compared with placebo were nasopharyngitis (11 and five vs 12), headache (five and three vs eight), and urinary-tract infections (six and two vs two). The maximum reduction in mean heart rate by Holter monitoring during the first 6 h in ozanimod-treated participants was less than 2 beats per min (bpm) compared with baseline, with no patient having a minimum hourly heart rate less than 45 bpm. Electrocardiograms and 24-h Holter monitoring showed no increased incidence of atrioventricular block or sinus pause with ozanimod. Ozanimod significantly reduced MRI lesion activity in participants with relapsing multiple sclerosis, with a favourable safety profile over a period of 24 weeks. These findings warrant phase 3 trials, which are ongoing. Receptos, Inc.

It is cost-effective to perform an HIV test in people with specific indicator conditions (IC) with an undiagnosed HIV prevalence of at least 0.1%. Our aim was to determine the HIV prevalence for 14 different conditions across 20 European countries. Individuals aged 18-65 years presenting for care with one of 14 ICs between January 2012 and June 2014 were included and routinely offered an HIV test. Logistic regression assessed factors associated with testing HIV positive. Patients presenting with infectious mononucleosis-like syndrome (IMS) were recruited up until September 2015. Of 10,877 patients presenting with an IC and included in the analysis, 303 tested positive (2.8%; 95% CI 2.5-3.1%). People presenting with an IC in Southern and Eastern Europe were more likely to test HIV positive as were people presenting with IMS, lymphadenopathy and leukocytopenia/ thrombocytopenia. One third of people diagnosed with HIV after presenting with IMS reported a negative HIV test in the preceding 12 months. Of patients newly diagnosed with HIV where data was available, 92.6% were promptly linked to care; of these 10.4% were reported lost to follow up or dead 12 months after diagnosis. The study showed that 10 conditions had HIV prevalences > 0.1%. These 10 ICs should be adopted into HIV testing and IC specialty guidelines. As IMS presentation can mimic acute HIV sero-conversion and has the highest positivity rate, this IC in particular affords opportunities for earlier diagnosis and public health benefit.

IntroductionIn TEMSO (NCT00134563) and TOWER (NCT00751881), teriflunomide was associated with early reductions in mean lymphocyte counts, which remained within the normal range. Here, we analyse long-term effects of teriflunomide on lymphocyte counts and infections in pooled TEMSO/TOWER core and extension data (TEMSO extension, NCT00803049).MethodsPooled data from core studies are reported for patients receiving placebo or teriflunomide 14 mg. In the extensions, placebo-treated patients received active treatment; results from pooled core and extension studies are reported for the teriflunomide 14 mg group. Lymphocyte counts were obtained every 2 weeks until Week 24, and every 6 weeks thereafter. Lymphopenia was identified from 2 consecutive lymphocyte counts below LLN and graded by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events.ResultsIn the core studies, placebo/teriflunomide-treated patients rarely experienced Grade 1 (0.7%/2.1%) or 2 (0.5%/1.4%) lymphopenia. Infections were reported in placebo-treated (40.0%/75.0%) and teriflunomide-treated (73.3%/20.0%) patients with Grade 1 or 2 lymphopenia, respectively. No patients with Grade 1 lymphopenia and 1 placebo-treated patient with Grade 2 lymphopenia developed a serious infection. In the combined core and extension studies, teriflunomide-treated patients (n=1354) experienced few Grade 1 (3.0%) or 2 (2.4%) lymphopenias; infections were reported in 25/40 (62.5%) and 19/33 (57.6%) patients, respectively, vs 718/1281 (56.0%) patients without lymphopenia. Serious infections occurred in patients without lymphopenia (47 patients [3.7%]) and in those with Grade 1 (1 [2.5%]) or Grade 2 (3 [9.1%]) lymphopenia. No Grade 3/4 lymphopenias were recorded. Despite the overall low rate of lymphopenia, occurrence and severity of lymphopenia will also be reported in subgroups of Asian and white patients.ConclusionIn long-term TEMSO and TOWER trials, low-grade lymphopenia was uncommon, with no reports of high-grade lymphopenia. Infection rates were similar in patients with or without lymphopenia, consistent with an immunomodulatory mechanism of action of teriflunomide with limited impact on protective immunity.

Oculopharyngodistal myopathy (OPDM) is an inherited myopathy manifesting with ptosis, dysphagia and distal weakness. Pathologically it is characterised by rimmed vacuoles and intranuclear inclusions on muscle biopsy. In recent years CGG • CCG repeat expansion in four different genes were identified in OPDM individuals in Asian populations. None of these have been found in affected individuals of non-Asian ancestry. In this study we describe the identification of CCG expansions in ABCD3 , ranging from 118 to 694 repeats, in 35 affected individuals across eight unrelated OPDM families of European ancestry. ABCD3 transcript appears upregulated in fibroblasts and skeletal muscle from OPDM individuals, suggesting a potential role of over-expression of CCG repeat containing ABCD3 transcript in progressive skeletal muscle degeneration. The study provides further evidence of the role of non-coding repeat expansions in unsolved neuromuscular diseases and strengthens the association between the CGG • CCG repeat motif and a specific pattern of muscle weakness. A significant proportion of individuals with inherited neuromuscular disease do not receive a genetic diagnosis. Here, the authors establish CCG expansions in the 5’ untranslated region of ABCD3 as a cause of oculopharyngodistal myopathy (OPDM) in individuals of European ancestry and identify increased expression of expansion-containing ABCD3 transcripts as a possible disease mechanism underlying muscle degeneration.