AGRICULTURAL BANK EFFICIENCY AND THE ROLE OF MANAGERIAL RISK PREFERENCES

We investigate the objectives of agricultural bank managers and their impacts on bank efficiency. If managers are non-neutral toward risk, then banks may appear inefficient when they are not. We find non-neutrality toward risk and efficiency gains due to firm size, loan shares, asset shares, and share of market deposits.Financial Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

Environment and Human Health in the Anthropocene: Interaction Between Natural and Social Systems in Coastal Tanzania

Coastal Tanzania, a region of historical and geopolitical importance in the western Indian Ocean, is a place where the problem of rapid environmental change is inextricably entwined with the challenges of development. In this region, although the fingerprint of the anthropocene has been discernible over the last century, there is paucity of research on how the population has interacted with the changing environment to generate disparities in perceptions of climate change and human health outcomes. The objectives of this thesis are four-fold: to assess barriers to climate change adaptation based on context (place), to explain group disparities in barriers to climate change adaptation based on relative well-being (income poverty), to evaluate description-based and experienced-based perceptions of environmental change, and to analyse the relationship between subjective and objective health status, on the one hand, and public perception of human health risks associated with climate change, on the other hand. Cross-sectional survey data on 1253 individuals (606 males and 647 females) were collected during March and September 2013 to make inferences about the population in this region. This was complemented with 50-year (1960-2009) meteorological data on rainfall and temperature. Multivariate regression, counterfactual decomposition, multinomial regression and time-series were used in the quantitative analyses. The results show that barriers to adaptation to climate change mainly reflect strong place-specific differences among the population. Disparities in barriers to climate adaptation between poor and nonpoor residents are mainly attributable to group differences in the magnitudes of the determinants (endowments) rather than group differences in the effects of the determinants (coefficients). There is agreement between respondents’ perceptions of temperature change and available scientific climatic evidence over the 50-year period although results on perception of rainfall patterns were varied. Generally, higher ratings on subjective health status were associated with lower scores on perceived human health risks of climate change. Concerning objective health status, the results were varied. Individuals who indicated that they had been previously diagnosed with hepatitis, skin conditions or tuberculosis had lower scores on perceived health risks of climate change unlike their counterparts who stated that they had been previously diagnosed with malaria in the past 12 months or had been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. These relationships persist even when biosocial and sociocultural attributes are taken into consideration. The results underscore the complex ways in which objective and subjective health interact with biosocial, sociocultural and contextual factors to shape public perception on health risks associated with climate change. At least two policy implications originate from the findings of this dissertation. First, disentangling the complex indirect pathways among barriers to climate change adaptation, place-based attributes and relative well-being is a challenging research endeavour that requires the development of new partnerships to provide more accurate data. Given the complex mechanism by which experiential climate change acts, collectively, with compositional and contextual factors to influence public perception of climate change-related human health risks, it is probably apt to approach the study of environmental change and human health using integrative frameworks

SOURCE SPECIFIC QUANTIFICATION AND CHARACTERISATION OF SOLID WASTE ALONG A SANDY BEACH IN CAPE COAST, GHANA

Ghana is dealing with extensive urban periphery settlements due to the massive migration of rural inhabitants to the cities, especially to the political and economic capital, Accra and other regional capitals including Cape Coast. This phenomenon has culminated in indiscriminate solid waste disposal. With no effective municipal solid waste collection system in place, heaps of refuse have become ubiquitous in Cape Coast especially along the beaches. The quantity and composition of solid waste at two locations along a sandy beach in the Cape Coast municipality was investigated in this study. Using five permanent 20 x 4 quadrats over seven weeks in each of the two locations, the amount and composition of solid waste were assessed. The results indicated that paper, bottle, wood, leather, textile, metal, plastics, organic matter and styrofoam were the main categories of solid waste found at the sandy beach. The results also indicated that the quantity of solid waste generated at Duakor and West Gate was 514 kgha-1 and 374 kgha-1 respectively. This study suggests that source specific waste quantification and characterisation of solid waste at different scales should be a vital part of planning in municipal solid waste management systems.solid waste characterisation; quantification; sandy beach; Ghana.

EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF AGRICULTURAL BANK MANAGEMENT: THE IMPACT OF STATE REGULATORY POLICIES

We evaluate agricultural bank management performance, focusing on the impacts of interstate banking laws on productivity change. The generalized Malmquist productivity index decomposes productivity change into technological change, technical efficiency change, and change in scale economies. While managerial productivity rose from 1982 to 1991, states that adopted the most liberal interstate banking laws experienced the most improvement in productivity. Large agricultural banks were more efficient.generalized Malmquist index, interstate banking, Agricultural Finance, Financial Economics,

EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF AGRICULTURAL BANK MANAGEMENT: THE IMPACT OF STATE REGULATORY POLICIES

We evaluate agricultural bank management performance, focusing on the impacts of interstate banking laws on productivity change. The generalized Malmquist productivity index decomposes productivity change into technological change, technical efficiency change, and change in scale economies. While managerial productivity rose from 1982 to 1991, states that adopt the most liberal interstate banking laws experienced the greatest improvement in productivity. Large agricultural banks were more efficient in states that had more liberalized interstate banking laws while small agricultural banks fared better in states with more restrictive laws.generalized Malmquist index, interstate banking, productivity change, Agricultural Finance,

Analisis Faktor Risiko Kejadian Asfiksia pada Bayi Baru Lahir di RSUD Syekh Yusuf Gowa dan Rsup Dr Wahidin Sudirohusodo Makassar Tahun 2013

Asfiksia pada bayi baru lahir atau asfiksia neonatorum adalah suatu keadaaan bayi baru lahir yang gagal bernafas secara spontan dan teratur segera setelah lahir. Asfiksia dapat mengakibatkan kematian dan diperkirakan satu juta anak yang bertahan setelah men-galami asfiksia saat lahir kini hidup dengan morbiditas jangka panjang seperti cerebral pal-sy, retardasi mental, dan gangguan belajar faktor-faktor risiko terjadinya asfiksia neonato-rum adalah faktor ibu, faktor plasenta, faktor janin, dan faktor persalinan.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat hubungan faktor risiko asfiksia pada kejadian asfiksia bayi baru lahir. Metode penelitian adalah observasional dengan menggunakan teknik pengambilan sampel total sampling, kemudian dianalisis menggunakan spss dengan uji chi-square Sampel dipilih berdasarkan data sekunder dan diperoleh 86 kasus di RSUD Syekh Yusuf Gowa dan 18 kasus di RSUP Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo Makassar.Penelitian ini dilakukan pada tanggal 3 Juli sampai 31 Juli 2013. Data dikumpulkan menggunakan lembar checklist.Hasil penelitian menunjukkan dari 104 kasus asfiksia, faktor risiko berdasarkan umur ibu (20-35 tahun) sebanyak 65,39% (p-value>0.05), berdasarkan usia kehamilan (42 minggu) sebanyak 55,76% (p-value>0.05), berdasarkan persalinan lama (>18 jam untuk multipara dan >24 jam untuk primipara) sebanyak 58,65% (p-value>0.05), dan berdasarkan jenis persalinan (persalinan dengan tindakan) sebanyak 56,73% (p-value>0.05).Kesimpulan umur Ibu, usia kehamilan, lama persalinan dan jenis persalinan tidak memiliki hubungan yang signifikan pada kasus asfiksia nenonatorum di RSUD Syekh Yusuf Gowa dan RSUP Wahidin Sudirohusodo

A Sudden Total Loss of Vision After Routine Cataract Surgery

We share our experience of a 50-year-old controlled hypertensive woman who had routine cataract surgery in her left eye. She was given retrobulbar Xylocaine with adrenalin and postoperative gentamycin. She subsequently became blind in the operated eye after developing macular infarction by the first day post operative and optic atrophy by 2 months postoperative. This could have been caused by vascular occlusion in an already compromised artherosclerosed vessels. It could also have been due to gentamyin toxicity. Gentamycin injection given subconjunctivally is known to rarely result in severe retinal toxicity. This case illustrates that even though cataract surgery is considerd a simple routine procedure, and is performed in high volumes, it is not without its blinding complications. We recommend that the use of adrenaline in xylocaine should be used with caution in hypertensive patients and also the routine use of subconjunctival gentamycin injection after cataract surgery should be reviewed and other modes of endophthalmitis prophylaxis be considered

Meal fatty acids and postprandial vascular reactivity

With increasing recognition of the pivotal role of vascular dysfunction in the progression of atherosclerosis, the vasculature has emerged as an important target for dietary therapies. Recent studies have indicated that chronic fatty acid manipulation alters vascular reactivity, when measured after an overnight fast. However, individuals spend a large proportion of the day in the postprandial (non-fasted) state. Several studies have shown that high fat meals can impair endothelial function within 3-4 h, a time period often associated with peak postprandial lipaemia. Although the impact of meal fatty acids on the magnitude and duration of the postprandial lipaemic response has been extensively studied, very little is known about their impact on vascular reactivity after a meal

Cost-effectiveness of community-based screening and treatment of moderate acute malnutrition in Mali.

IntroductionModerate acute malnutrition (MAM) causes substantial child morbidity and mortality, accounting for 4.4% of deaths and 6.0% of disability-adjusted life years (DALY) lost among children under 5 each year. There is growing consensus on the need to provide appropriate treatment of MAM, both to reduce associated morbidity and mortality and to halt its progression to severe acute malnutrition. We estimated health outcomes, costs and cost-effectiveness of four dietary supplements for MAM treatment in children 6-35 months of age in Mali.MethodsWe conducted a cluster-randomised MAM treatment trial to describe nutritional outcomes of four dietary supplements for the management of MAM: ready-to-use supplementary foods (RUSF; PlumpySup); a specially formulated corn-soy blend (CSB) containing dehulled soybean flour, maize flour, dried skimmed milk, soy oil and a micronutrient pre-mix (CSB++; Super Cereal Plus); Misola, a locally produced, micronutrient-fortified, cereal-legume blend (MI); and locally milled flour (LMF), a mixture of millet, beans, oil and sugar, with a separate micronutrient powder. We used a decision tree model to estimate long-term outcomes and calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) comparing the health and economic outcomes of each strategy.ResultsCompared to no MAM treatment, MAM treatment with RUSF, CSB++, MI and LMF reduced the risk of death by 15.4%, 12.7%, 11.9% and 10.3%, respectively. The ICER was US$9821 per death averted (2015 USD) and US$347 per DALY averted for RUSF compared with no MAM treatment.ConclusionMAM treatment with RUSF is cost-effective across a wide range of willingness-to-pay thresholds.Trial registrationNCT01015950