Sandy Schwartz: I will introduce our panelists in alphabetical order. Michael Lauer is a cardiologist, who has advanced training in education in Public Health, developed a world-class cardiovascular epidemiology program at the Cleveland Clinic and is a very creative thinker and researcher in the field of Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER). Barbara McNeil is the Ridley Watts Professor and Founding Head of The Department of Health Care Policy and Research at Harvard Medical School. She has been an advisor in leadership positions at most of the advisory groups that deal with technology assessment and quality care throughout the country and clearly one of the leaders and founders of this field. Sean Tunis is the Founder and Director for The Center for Medical Technology Policy (CMTP), which is a very innovative group that brings stakeholders together to try to define and work on technology assessment and to move the field forward. He has served on the Hill, at the Senate, and the US Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. He was the director of the health program at The Office of Technology Assessment and then became the director of The Office of Clinical Standards and Quality and chief medical officer at The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which was then originally known as Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) and then merging to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and Sean has also been unusually creative in some of the approaches that he has proposed for looking at how we do this type of research.Michael Lauer: We normally think of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a funding agency, but one of our major functions is also to promote thinking, and I often tell my colleagues how enjoyable it is to work at a think tank. This particular conference is funded by an NIH R13 grant, and I have to say, what an incredible pleasure it is to see our money going to an event like this where every single seat in this room is taken by very thoughtful, creative people. I want to congratulate you for putting on a terrific conference. The first two talks were really fabulous to get this thing started. Dr Morton talked about the need for early successes, and I think if there is one thing to encourage us about CER is that all is not bad. We have had a number of major successes, which should spur us to take this whole field to a much higher level. When I was a resident, the management for acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction was lidocaine and nitrates. We now know that with lidocaine, we were probably killing people and with nitrates we were giving our patients horrible headaches. The management now is completely different. In 1985, there was a major pragmatic trial that was published out of Italy called GISSI. This was a trial of 20,000 people, and it was simple. The investigators enrolled patients who came to the emergency room for whom the doctor thought the patient was having a heart attack. The patient was randomized to get streptokinase or nothing and that was it. ...
Xenia (pollination of florets with genetically unrelated pollen), male sterility (removal of fertile pollen), and synchronous pollination (application of pollen when all silks are present) are well‐documented processes that influence kernel formation and development in maize. There also have been numerous reports in which xenia and male sterility were combined in an attempt to increase kernel number, kernel weight, and/or grain yield. We present an analysis of published literature exploring impacts of xenia resulting from cross‐pollination, male sterility, and synchronous pollination applied individually or in combination. Although synchronous pollination has had the most consistent and positive impact on seed formation, to our knowledge there are no reports combining all three effectors together. Recently developed technology to collect, preserve, and apply large volumes of maize pollen has provided the opportunity to evaluate the cumulative and potentially synergistic effects of synchronous pollination, xenia, and male sterility applied together on maize hybrids. We present the results of a field trial combining all three effectors in maize; this approach increased kernels per ear, kernel oil concentration, and grain yield per hectare. The results suggest synchronous pollination is essential to enable the greatest number of kernels to develop successfully. Male sterility supports kernel formation by providing greater assimilate supply per kernel, and xenia increases sink strength to attract the additional assimilates. The positive response and economic return when these effectors are applied in combination provides a novel opportunity for grain producers to manage kernel formation and composition proactively using pollen to deliver the trait of choice.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.