Cost implications of agricultural land degradation in Ghana:

"An economywide, multimarket model is constructed for Ghana and the effects of agricultural soil erosion on crop yields are explicitly modeled at the subnational regional level for eight main staple crops. The model is used to evaluate the aggregate economic costs of soil erosion by taking into account economywide linkages between production and consumption, across sectors and agricultural subsectors. To fill a gap in the literature regarding economic cost analysis of soil erosion, this paper also analyzes the poverty implications of land degradation. The model predicts that land degradation reduces agricultural income in Ghana by a total of US$4.2 billion over the period 2006–2015, which is approximately five percent of total agricultural GDP in these ten years. The effect of soil loss on poverty is also significant at the national level, equivalent to a 5.4 percentage point increase in the poverty rate in 2015 compared to the case of no soil loss. Moreover, soil loss causes a slowing of poverty reduction over time in the three northern regions, which currently have the highest poverty rates in the country. Sustainable land management (SLM) is the key to reducing agricultural soil loss. The present findings indicate that through the adoption of conventional SLM practices, the declining trend in land productivity can be reversed, and that use of a combination of conventional and modern SLM practices would generate an aggregate economic benefit of US$6.4 billion over the period 2006–2015. SLM practices would therefore significantly reduce poverty in Ghana, particularly in the three northern regions." Authors' AbstractLand degradation, Costs, Agricultural soil loss, Economywide modeling, Modeling cost of land degradation,

Determination of Chemical Constituents of the Marine Pulmonate Slug, Paraoncidium reevesii

Purpose: To isolate and identify the chemical components of Paraoncidium reevesii.Methods: Silica gel column chromatography was used to isolate the components from petroleum ether and ethyl acetate fractions of the acetone extract, and the structures of the compounds were derived from 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS) analyses and also with the aid of literature data for authenticated samples.Results: Cholesterol (1), baconipyrone D (2), chimyl alcohol (3), batyl alcohol (4), á-monpalmitin (5), stearic acid (6), 3-indolecarboxylic acid (7), uracil (8), thymine (9), uridine (10), thymidine (11) were isolated from the marine slug (Paraoncidium reevesii).Conclusion: All the isolated compounds are being reported here for Paraoncidium reevesii for the first time. The results provide base data for further study of the Onchidiidae as a Chinese traditional remedy for asthma and athlete’s foot.Keywords: Mollusk, Paraoncidium reevesii, Baconipyrone D, Batyl alcohol, Chimyl alcohol Onchidiidae, Marine Pulmonate, Slug, Asthma, Athlete’s foo

Local control of intestinal stem cell homeostasis by enteroendocrine cells in the adult <i>Drosophila</i> midgut

Background: Enteroendocrine cells populate gastrointestinal tissues and are known to translate local cues into systemic responses through the release of hormones into the bloodstream.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Results: Here we report a novel function of enteroendocrine cells acting as local regulators of intestinal stem cell (ISC) proliferation through modulation of the mesenchymal stem cell niche in the &lt;i&gt;Drosophila&lt;/i&gt; midgut. This paracrine signaling acts to constrain ISC proliferation within the epithelial compartment. Mechanistically, midgut enteroendocrine cells secrete the neuroendocrine hormone Bursicon, which acts—beyond its known roles in development—as a paracrine factor on the visceral muscle (VM). Bursicon binding to its receptor, DLGR2, the ortholog of mammalian leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptors (LGR4-6), represses the production of the VM-derived EGF-like growth factor Vein through activation of cAMP.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Conclusions: We therefore identify a novel paradigm in the regulation of ISC quiescence involving the conserved ligand/receptor Bursicon/DLGR2 and a previously unrecognized tissue-intrinsic role of enteroendocrine cells.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt

Global resilience analysis of water distribution systems

© 2016 Evaluating and enhancing resilience in water infrastructure is a crucial step towards more sustainable urban water management. As a prerequisite to enhancing resilience, a detailed understanding is required of the inherent resilience of the underlying system. Differing from traditional risk analysis, here we propose a global resilience analysis (GRA) approach that shifts the objective from analysing multiple and unknown threats to analysing the more identifiable and measurable system responses to extreme conditions, i.e. potential failure modes. GRA aims to evaluate a system's resilience to a possible failure mode regardless of the causal threat(s) (known or unknown, external or internal). The method is applied to test the resilience of four water distribution systems (WDSs) with various features to three typical failure modes (pipe failure, excess demand, and substance intrusion). The study reveals GRA provides an overview of a water system's resilience to various failure modes. For each failure mode, it identifies the range of corresponding failure impacts and reveals extreme scenarios (e.g. the complete loss of water supply with only 5% pipe failure, or still meeting 80% of demand despite over 70% of pipes failing). GRA also reveals that increased resilience to one failure mode may decrease resilience to another and increasing system capacity may delay the system's recovery in some situations. It is also shown that selecting an appropriate level of detail for hydraulic models is of great importance in resilience analysis. The method can be used as a comprehensive diagnostic framework to evaluate a range of interventions for improving system resilience in future studies

Urètrocèle post-traumatique chez l’homme: A propos de 2 cas

RésuméAffection rare chez l’homme, le diverticule urétral est souvent d’origine acquise. Nous rapportons deux cas d’urètrocèle post-traumatique chez des sujets jeunes qui ont été traités avec succès par chirurgie ouverte et nous en discutons les aspects cliniques para cliniques et thérapeutiques.AbstractUrethral diverticulum is unusual in male where it is often acquired. We report two cases of post-traumatic urethrocele in young male managed successfully by open surgery. We describe herein, the clinical, paraclinical and therapeutic features

Cancer du testicule: particularités cliniques et limites thérapeutiques en milieu hospitalier urologique au Sénégal

RésuméButEtudier les particularités cliniques et les limites thérapeutiques de la prise en charge du cancer du testicule au Sénégal.Patients et méthodesCette étude, rétrospective, était menée sur une période de 15 ans de Janvier 1997 à Janvier 2012. Vingt-deux dossiers étaient colligés mais 17 étaient exploitables.Résultatsl’incidence annuelle moyenne était de 1,13 cas par an. L’âge moyen des patients était de 27 ans ± 9,5. La tranche d’âge la plus concernée était celle de 21 à 40 ans. Les circonstances de découverte étaient dominées par la grosse bourse (10 cas) et en cas de vacuité scrotale, la masse abdominale ou pelvienne (7 cas). L’orchidectomie a été le principal geste thérapeutique. Elle a été réalisée par voie inguinale haute (8 patients) et par voie trans-péritonéale (7 patients). Sur le plan histologique, nous avions noté une prédominance des tumeurs germinales non séminomateuses avec 10 cas de carcinome embryonnaire dont un cas de type infantile. En post opératoire, 7 cas de progression avaient été notés dans le suivi: 3 cas de carcinose péritonéale, 3 cas d’envahissement locorégionale avec des adénopathies rétropéritonéale et 1 cas de métastase pulmonaire. Avec un recul moyen de 6 mois, 9 patients étaient décédés, 4 étaient perdus de vue et les 4 autres étaient vivants.ConclusionLe cancer du testicule reste rare au Sénégal et concerne des sujets jeunes. Le diagnostic est encore posé à des stades très évolués avec une lourde mortalité.AbstractObjectiveTo investigate the clinical features and limitations of therapeutic management of testicular cancer in Senegal.Patients and methodsThis is a retrospective study over 15 years period between January 1997 and January 2012. Twenty-two cases were collected but only 17 had complete data for analysis.ResultsThe average annual incidence was 1.13 cases per year, with a mean age of 27±9.5 years. The most affected age group was between 21 and 40 years.Clinical diagnosis was suspected by the presence of a scrotal swelling in10 cases and by empty scrotum associated with abdominal or pelvic mass in the remaining 7 cases. Orchiectomy was the main treatment option, done either by high inguinal approach in 8 patients or by trans- peritoneal route in other 7 patients. Histologically, a predominance of embryonic non seminomatous germ cell carcinoma was noted in 10 cases including infantile type in one case. Seven cases developed disease progression:3 cases of peritoneal carcinmatosis, 3 other cases of locoregional invasion with retroperitoneal lymphadenopathy and one case of pulmonary metastasis. At a mean follow up of six months, nine patients died, four were lost to follow up while the remaining four cases were still alive.ConclusionTesticular cancer is a rare tumor in Senegal and usually involves young people. Clinical diagnosis is always done at very advanced stage with a very high mortality rate

In-situ investigation of crystallization and structural evolution of a metallic glass in three dimensions at nano-scale

The crystallization behaviour of metallic glasses (MGs) has been investigated since the discovery of these important functional materials in order to optimize their synthesis procedures and improve their performances. Methods including powder X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy are usually combined to characterize the crystalline structure in these “amorphous” materials. Until now, these methods, however, have failed to show the crystallization of individual crystals in three dimensions. In this work, in-situ Bragg coherent X-ray diffraction imaging (BCDI) reveals the growth and the strain variation of individual crystals in the Fe-based MGs during annealing. There is preferential growth along the surface of the MG sample particles during the crystal formation and fractal structure formation around the developing crystal surfaces; there is also strain relaxation happening from the inner parts to the surfaces of the developing crystals while cooling. The work leads to propose that during the crystallization of Fe-based MGs, the growth of the individual crystals follows a two-step procedure; and at higher temperature after the first crystallization period of the Fe-based MGs, the crystallization of α-Fe could be a competitive process between the growth of α-Fe crystals and the erosion from other elements