Microfinance for Disabled People: How is it Contributing?

Disabled people face discrimination and marginalization across the globe. They are affected by extreme poverty and due to this; they have limited livelihood opportunities. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) overlooked the responsibility to include disabled people into their mainstream program. Microfinance is supposed to be for poverty reduction, empowerment of poor and vulnerable people but very few examples shows that microfinance served disabled people. Some MFIs or donor funded projects piloted some experiments around the globe and found that disabled people are economically active, confident, self-employed and appear as the best clients. Disabled people constitute a good market segment for MFIs. However, locating and including disabled people in the conventional microfinance practices is also challenging. Providing credit or savings service is not enough for disabled people but MFIs could offer extended services such as financial literacy, customized training for income generation. MFIs could also recruit disability friendly staff, include disability issue in the training curriculum to change mindset of staff, develop and implement the policies for reaching more disabled people. Beyond these initiatives, MFIs might build strategic partnership with Disabled Peoples Organizations (DPOs) to get effective information about disabled people to ensure access to financial services. This article would focus on several issues of disability and poverty, forms of discrimination and obstacles that disabled people face to access microfinance, contribution of microfinance on the lives of disabled people, challenges that MFIs face for designing specific program for the financial inclusion of disabled people. Keywords: Microfinance, Poverty, Disability, Discrimination, Contribution. DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/4-9-118

Pressure on Loan Officers in Microfinance Institutions: An Ethical Perspective

Loan officers play diverse and significant role in Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). While performing their job, they encounter tremendous pressure. Some of the pressures are meeting deadlines and quotas, powerful hierarchical pressure, reducing Portfolio at Risk (PAR), working more than normal functioning hours in and outside office, structural pressure. These types of pressure reduce productivity, creates dissatisfaction with jobs, lower confidence, hamper relationship, and most importantly, impact personal life. This unrealistic pressure on loan officers is an ethical issue. In this paper, some management consequences will be discussed that arises from the unethical pressures. Besides that, some practical recommendation for the managers of microfinance institutions are suggested to address this issue such as proper implementation of human resource policy and procedures, appropriate planning and promote supportive culture, effective communication and feedback, adequate staff training and mentoring, following bottom-up approach, logistics support. Keywords: Loan Officers/Credit officers, Pressure, Microfinance, Ethics DOI: 10.7176/JESD/4-12-84

Weather Index Insurance for Agriculture in Bangladesh: Significance of Implementation and Some Challenges

Farmers are very poor and vulnerable especially in the developing countries. Farmers face several natural disasters and challenges during the agricultural production. The unavoidable and negative impact of weather could reduce the capacity of production, make farmers unproductive and put farmers into poverty. To face these challenges, weather index insurance could play a significant role but implementing index-based insurance is also challenging. Different stakeholders from insurance companies to government to donor agencies should come forward to protect the agricultural production because agriculture is the main source of food. These stakeholders also need to protect the lives of farmers, and enhance economic growth by implementing weather index insurance. This paper will focus on the present literatures of weather index insurance mainly some basic issues of weather index insurance and the relevance to use this in the context of Bangladesh, the advantages of weather index insurance and the challenges of implementation. Keywords: Weather Index Insurance, Bangladesh, Agriculture, Insurance DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/5-14-74

Molecularly targeted therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma - a drug development crisis?

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the fastest growing cause of cancer related death globally. Sorafenib, a multi-targeted kinase inhibitor, is the only drug proven to improve outcomes in patients with advanced disease offering modest survival benefit. Although comprehensive genomic mapping has improved understanding of the genetic aberrations in hepatocellular cancer (HCC), this knowledge has not yet impacted clinical care. The last few years have seen the failure of several first and second line phase III clinical trials of novel molecularly targeted therapies, warranting a change in the way new therapies are investigated in HCC. Potential reasons for these failures include clinical and molecular heterogeneity, trial design and a lack of biomarkers. This review discusses the current crisis in HCC drug development and how we should learn from recent trial failures to develop a more effective personalised treatment paradigm for patients with HCC

Assessing knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 among sub assistant agriculture officers: An empirical study in Bangladesh

The government of Bangladesh pays special attention to the agriculture sector to limit the current and after-effects of COVID-19 regarding food insecurity. Sub assistant agriculture officers - the frontline extension workers are working to maintain the normal trend of production and marketing amid COVID-19 pandemic, which, in turn, possess severe health threat of virus infection. Therefore, we investigated the knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 among the sub assistant agriculture officers. The study was conducted in Gopalganj and Narail districts of Bangladesh with a total of 110 respondents. Data were collected through group interviews using a structured questionnaire in June 2020. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi square tests and binary logistic regressions. We found that about 66.36 percent of the respondents had good knowledge; 65.45 percent had positive attitude towards successful control and prevention; and 62.73 percent were taking good preventive practices towards COVID-19. However, still good number of the respondents had poor knowledge (33.64 percent), less positive attitude (34.55 percent) and poor practice (37.27 percent). Age, gender and service experience were significantly associated with good knowledge, and age and service experience were significantly associated with good practice. We recommend for the continuous flow of COVID-19 information from the health department as well as awareness campaigns and official circular about symptoms and preventive measures from the controlling authority, i.e. Department of Agricultural Extension. Finally, the limited sample size of the study advises to be more careful about generalizing the findings in other parts of the country

Conductometric Studies Of Adsorption Of Sulfide On Charcoal From Aqueous Solution

Abstract: Adsorption of sulfide (S 2-) from aqueous solution on commercial charcoal was studied using conductometric technique. A proportionally constant for concentration of S 2-and its conductance was obtained by measuring conductance of S 2-solution over a concentration range of 0.00050.02 M. The time-dependent measured conductance of S 2-solution was converted to concentration using the obtained constant. The adsorption data were analyzed by both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms. A surface coverage equal to 2.5 mg per gram of charcoal was obtained. The adsorption was found to follow first-order kinetics having rate constant equal to 2.65 10 3 s -1

MTL-CEBPA, a small activating RNA therapeutic upregulating C/EBP-α, in patients with advanced liver cancer: a first-in-human, multicenter, open-label, phase I trial

Purpose: Transcription factor C/EBP-α (CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha) acts as a master regulator of hepatic and myeloid functions and multiple oncogenic processes. MTL-CEBPA is a first-in-class small activating RNA oligonucleotide drug which up-regulates C/EBP-α. Experimental Design: We conducted a phase I, open label, dose escalation trial of MTL-CEBPA in adults with advanced HCC with cirrhosis, or resulting from non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) or with liver metastases. Patients received intravenous MTL-CEBPA once a week for 3 weeks followed by a rest period of 1 week per treatment cycle in the dose escalation phase (3+3 design). Results: 38 participants have been treated across 6 dose levels (28-160 mg/m2) and 3 dosing schedules. 34 patients were evaluable for safety endpoints at 28 days. MTL-CEBPA treatment-related adverse events were not associated with dose and no maximum dose was reached across the 3 schedules evaluated. Grade 3 treatment related adverse events occurred in 9 (24%) patients. In 24 HCC patients evaluable for efficacy, an objective tumour response was achieved in 1 patient [4%; partial response (PR) for over 2 years] and stable disease (SD) in 12 (50%). After discontinuation of MTL-CEBPA, seven patients were treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI); 3 patients had a complete response with one further PR and two with SD. Conclusions: MTL-CEBPA is the first saRNA in clinical trials and demonstrates an acceptable safety profile and potential synergistic efficacy with TKIs in HCC. These encouraging Phase I data validate targeting of C/EBP-α and have prompted MTL-CEBPA + sorafenib combination studies in HCC

Assessment of tumor response, AFP response, and time to progression in the phase 3 CELESTIAL trial of cabozantinib versus placebo in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)

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PANTHER: AZD8931, inhibitor of EGFR, ERBB2 and ERBB3 signalling, combined with FOLFIRI: a Phase I/II study to determine the importance of schedule and activity in colorectal cancer

BACKGROUND: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a therapeutic target to which HER2/HER3 activation may contribute resistance. This Phase I/II study examined the toxicity and efficacy of high-dose pulsed AZD8931, an EGFR/HER2/HER3 inhibitor, combined with chemotherapy, in metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: Treatment-naive patients received 4-day pulses of AZD8931 with irinotecan/5-FU (FOLFIRI) in a Phase I/II single-arm trial. Primary endpoint for Phase I was dose limiting toxicity (DLT); for Phase II best overall response. Samples were analysed for pharmacokinetics, EGFR dimers in circulating exosomes and Comet assay quantitating DNA damage. RESULTS: Eighteen patients received FOLFIRI and AZD8931. At 160 mg bd, 1 patient experienced G3 DLT; 160 mg bd was used for cohort expansion. No grade 5 adverse events (AE) reported. Seven (39%) and 1 (6%) patients experienced grade 3 and grade 4 AEs, respectively. Of 12 patients receiving 160 mg bd, best overall response rate was 25%, median PFS and OS were 8.7 and 21.2 months, respectively. A reduction in circulating HER2/3 dimer in the two responding patients after 12 weeks treatment was observed. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of pulsed high-dose AZD8931 with FOLFIRI has acceptable toxicity. Further studies of TKI sequencing may establish a role for pulsed use of such agents rather than continuous exposure. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT01862003

First-in-human phase I study of pictilisib (GDC-0941), a potent pan-class I phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor, in patients with advanced solid tumors.

PURPOSE: This first-in-human dose-escalation trial evaluated the safety, tolerability, maximal-tolerated dose (MTD), dose-limiting toxicities (DLT), pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and preliminary clinical activity of pictilisib (GDC-0941), an oral, potent, and selective inhibitor of the class I phosphatidylinositol-3-kinases (PI3K). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty patients with solid tumors received pictilisib at 14 dose levels from 15 to 450 mg once-daily, initially on days 1 to 21 every 28 days and later, using continuous dosing for selected dose levels. Pharmacodynamic studies incorporated (18)F-FDG-PET, and assessment of phosphorylated AKT and S6 ribosomal protein in platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and tumor tissue. RESULTS: Pictilisib was well tolerated. The most common toxicities were grade 1-2 nausea, rash, and fatigue, whereas the DLT was grade 3 maculopapular rash (450 mg, 2 of 3 patients; 330 mg, 1 of 7 patients). The pharmacokinetic profile was dose-proportional and supported once-daily dosing. Levels of phosphorylated serine-473 AKT were suppressed >90% in PRP at 3 hours after dose at the MTD and in tumor at pictilisib doses associated with AUC >20 h·μmol/L. Significant increase in plasma insulin and glucose levels, and >25% decrease in (18)F-FDG uptake by PET in 7 of 32 evaluable patients confirmed target modulation. A patient with V600E BRAF-mutant melanoma and another with platinum-refractory epithelial ovarian cancer exhibiting PTEN loss and PIK3CA amplification demonstrated partial response by RECIST and GCIG-CA125 criteria, respectively. CONCLUSION: Pictilisib was safely administered with a dose-proportional pharmacokinetic profile, on-target pharmacodynamic activity at dose levels ≥100 mg and signs of antitumor activity. The recommended phase II dose was continuous dosing at 330 mg once-daily.This study was supported by Genentech Inc. The Drug Development Unit, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, and The Institute of Cancer Research (London) is supported in part by programme grants from Cancer Research UK. Support was also provided by Experimental Cancer Medicine Center grants (to The Institute of Cancer Research and the Cancer Research UK Center), the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Center (jointly to The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Institute of Cancer Research) and the Wellcome Trust (grant 090952/Z/09/Z to Dr. Ang). Paul Workman is a Cancer Research UK Life Fellow.Originally published by the American Association for Cancer Research in Clinical Cancer Research January 1, 2015 21; 77 http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-14-094