An assessment of key success factors in the South African low cost airline industry

Abstract: Deregulation of the South African Low Cost Airline lowered entry barriers which resulted in 11 airlines entering the market between 1990 and 2018 but only 6 are still operating. Using a literature and qualitative method, the study found that there are key success factors that actors in the industry have to adhere to enhance their survival. These include having support from a full service parent airline, modern fleet and tapping into the market of those who normally would not fly, among many others. The key success factors seem to have been applied by those that succeeded in the industry

Do haematological profiles of cows in drought prone areas differ with conformation?

Aim of study: Severe and frequent droughts have resulted in loss of thousands of rangeland cattle worldwide. The objectives of the current study were to assess the reduction in dimensionality of seven conformation traits and to determine the relationships between extracted constructs and haematological parameters associated with drought resilience in beef cows.Area of study: Muzarabani district, Zimbabwe.Material and methods: Fifty multiparous Mashona cows kept on natural rangelands were used. The collinearity of seven conformation traits of the cows was reduced using principal component analysis. The relationships between the principal components and hematological profiles of the cows were subsequently determined using regression analysis.Main results: First extracted principal component described body capacity (body depth, flank circumference, chest girth). The second component described the frame size (stature and body length) of the cows and the third component was comprised of sheath height and dewlap size. Cows characterised by deep bodies, large flanks and chest girths had low percent haematocrit (HCT), mean capsular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and red cell distribution (RDW) (p<0.05). Small-framed cows were associated with low mean platelet volume (MPV), HCT, MCHC and RDW levels in blood (p<0.05). As principal component 3 of conformation traits increased, white blood cell count, mean corpuscular volume, RDW and MPV decreased (p<0.05).Research highlights: Small-framed cows with large thoracic capacities, large dewlaps and belly bottoms far away from the ground surface are able to maintain haematological normalcy under rangelands in drought prone areas

Orange maize in Zambia: crop development and delivery experience

Biofortified vitamin A “orange” maize can help address the adverse health effects of vitamin A deficiency. By 2016, HarvestPlus and its partners had developed six orange maize varieties and delivery efforts have reached more than 100,000 farming households in Zambia. HarvestPlus has established the proof of concept, that vitamin A maize varieties can be developed without compromising yield levels and that these varieties can deliver sufficient quantities of vitamin A to improve nutrition. The delivery program has also shown that farmers are willing to grow orange maize varieties and consumers are willing to buy and eat orange maize products. This paper summarizes the country’s nutritional and consumer backgrounds, the crop development and release of orange maize varieties, the delivery efforts in Zambia and impact measurement. It also synthesizes lessons learned and future challenges.Keywords: Biofortification, Vitamin A Deficiency, Orange Maize, Vitamin A Maize, Zambi

Molecular breeding for nutritionally enriched maize: status and prospects

Open Access Journal; Published online: 21 Feb 2020Maize is a major source of food security and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Latin America, and the Caribbean, and is among the top three cereal crops in Asia. Yet, maize is deficient in certain essential amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. Biofortified maize cultivars enriched with essential minerals and vitamins could be particularly impactful in rural areas with limited access to diversified diet, dietary supplements, and fortified foods. Significant progress has been made in developing, testing, and deploying maize cultivars biofortified with quality protein maize (QPM), provitamin A, and kernel zinc. In this review, we outline the status and prospects of developing nutritionally enriched maize by successfully harnessing conventional and molecular marker-assisted breeding, highlighting the need for intensification of efforts to create greater impacts on malnutrition in maize-consuming populations, especially in the low- and middle-income countries. Molecular marker-assisted selection methods are particularly useful for improving nutritional traits since conventional breeding methods are relatively constrained by the cost and throughput of nutritional trait phenotyping

The AgMIP Coordinated Climate-Crop Modeling Project (C3MP): Methods and Protocols

Climate change is expected to alter a multitude of factors important to agricultural systems, including pests, diseases, weeds, extreme climate events, water resources, soil degradation, and socio-economic pressures. Changes to carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]), temperature, andwater (CTW) will be the primary drivers of change in crop growth and agricultural systems. Therefore, establishing the CTW-change sensitivity of crop yields is an urgent research need and warrants diverse methods of investigation. Crop models provide a biophysical, process-based tool to investigate crop responses across varying environmental conditions and farm management techniques, and have been applied in climate impact assessment by using a variety of methods (White et al., 2011, and references therein). However, there is a significant amount of divergence between various crop models’ responses to CTW changes (R¨otter et al., 2011). While the application of a site-based crop model is relatively simple, the coordination of such agricultural impact assessments on larger scales requires consistent and timely contributions from a large number of crop modelers, each time a new global climate model (GCM) scenario or downscaling technique is created. A coordinated, global effort to rapidly examine CTW sensitivity across multiple crops, crop models, and sites is needed to aid model development and enhance the assessment of climate impacts (Deser et al., 2012)..

Improving Access to Mental Health Care in an Orthodox Jewish Community: A Critical Reflection Upon the Accommodation of Otherness

The English National Health Service (NHS) has significantly extended the supply of evidence based psychological interventions in primary care for people experiencing common mental health problems. Yet despite the extra resources, the accessibility of services for ‘under-served’ ethnic and religious minority groups, is considerably short of the levels of access that may be necessary to offset the health inequalities created by their different exposure to services, resulting in negative health outcomes. This paper offers a critical reflection upon an initiative that sought to improve access to an NHS funded primary care mental health service to one ‘under-served’ population, an Orthodox Jewish community in the North West of England

Independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene, and improved complementary feeding, on child stunting and anaemia in rural Zimbabwe: a cluster-randomised trial.

BACKGROUND: Child stunting reduces survival and impairs neurodevelopment. We tested the independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and improved infant and young child feeding (IYCF) on stunting and anaemia in in Zimbabwe. METHODS: We did a cluster-randomised, community-based, 2 × 2 factorial trial in two rural districts in Zimbabwe. Clusters were defined as the catchment area of between one and four village health workers employed by the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care. Women were eligible for inclusion if they permanently lived in clusters and were confirmed pregnant. Clusters were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1) to standard of care (52 clusters), IYCF (20 g of a small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplement per day from age 6 to 18 months plus complementary feeding counselling; 53 clusters), WASH (construction of a ventilated improved pit latrine, provision of two handwashing stations, liquid soap, chlorine, and play space plus hygiene counselling; 53 clusters), or IYCF plus WASH (53 clusters). A constrained randomisation technique was used to achieve balance across the groups for 14 variables related to geography, demography, water access, and community-level sanitation coverage. Masking of participants and fieldworkers was not possible. The primary outcomes were infant length-for-age Z score and haemoglobin concentrations at 18 months of age among children born to mothers who were HIV negative during pregnancy. These outcomes were analysed in the intention-to-treat population. We estimated the effects of the interventions by comparing the two IYCF groups with the two non-IYCF groups and the two WASH groups with the two non-WASH groups, except for outcomes that had an important statistical interaction between the interventions. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01824940. FINDINGS: Between Nov 22, 2012, and March 27, 2015, 5280 pregnant women were enrolled from 211 clusters. 3686 children born to HIV-negative mothers were assessed at age 18 months (884 in the standard of care group from 52 clusters, 893 in the IYCF group from 53 clusters, 918 in the WASH group from 53 clusters, and 991 in the IYCF plus WASH group from 51 clusters). In the IYCF intervention groups, the mean length-for-age Z score was 0·16 (95% CI 0·08-0·23) higher and the mean haemoglobin concentration was 2·03 g/L (1·28-2·79) higher than those in the non-IYCF intervention groups. The IYCF intervention reduced the number of stunted children from 620 (35%) of 1792 to 514 (27%) of 1879, and the number of children with anaemia from 245 (13·9%) of 1759 to 193 (10·5%) of 1845. The WASH intervention had no effect on either primary outcome. Neither intervention reduced the prevalence of diarrhoea at 12 or 18 months. No trial-related serious adverse events, and only three trial-related adverse events, were reported. INTERPRETATION: Household-level elementary WASH interventions implemented in rural areas in low-income countries are unlikely to reduce stunting or anaemia and might not reduce diarrhoea. Implementation of these WASH interventions in combination with IYCF interventions is unlikely to reduce stunting or anaemia more than implementation of IYCF alone. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Department for International Development, Wellcome Trust, Swiss Development Cooperation, UNICEF, and US National Institutes of Health.The SHINE trial is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1021542 and OPP113707); UK Department for International Development; Wellcome Trust, UK (093768/Z/10/Z, 108065/Z/15/Z and 203905/Z/16/Z); Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; US National Institutes of Health (2R01HD060338-06); and UNICEF (PCA-2017-0002)