Constraints to Occupational Diversification among Rural Women in Anambra State, Nigeria

The study was carried out in Anambra State, Nigeria to ascertain constraints to occupational diversification among rural women. Questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 462 rural women. Percentage, mean scores, standard deviation, factor analysis and student’s t-test were used for data analysis. Major constraints to occupational diversification were grouped into labour, institutional, technical and social problems. The study identified solutions to problems to include provision of adequate physical infrastructure such as roads, electricity and pipe-borne water in rural areas (74.2%), provision of social amenities such as hospitals (73.6%), establishment of industries in rural areas to create job opportunities (72.9%) and appropriate government policy on women empowerment (65.8%), among others. There was a significant difference between means of farm and non-farm income. The mean of farm income was ₦31,022.8 while the mean of non-farm income was ₦125,364 (t= 12.136; p≤0.05). The study recommends the inclusion of non-farm occupations in rural extension services especially value chain of cash crops as a means of improving income generation

Constraints to Occupational Diversification among Rural Women in Anambra State, Nigeria

The study was carried out in Anambra State, Nigeria to ascertain constraints to occupational diversification among rural women. Questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 462 rural women. Percentage, mean scores, standard deviation, factor analysis and student’s t-test were used for data analysis. Major constraints to occupational diversification were grouped into labour, institutional, technical and social problems. The study identified solutions to problems to include provision of adequate physical infrastructure such as roads, electricity and pipe-borne water in rural areas (74.2%), provision of social amenities such as hospitals (73.6%), establishment of industries in rural areas to create job opportunities (72.9%) and appropriate government policy on women empowerment (65.8%), among others. There was a significant difference between means of farm and non-farm income. The mean of farm income was ₦31,022.8 while the mean of non-farm income was ₦125,364 (t= 12.136; p≤0.05). The study recommends the inclusion of non-farm occupations in rural extension services especially value chain of cash crops as a means of improving income generation

Approaches to Economic Empowerment of Rural Women for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Implications for Policy

There are several ways of promoting women’s economic participation while also counteracting climate change. One approach in the field of climate mitigation is the promotion of renewable energies that help avoid greenhouse gas emissions. The potential of rural women as agents of change for climate mitigation and adaptation remains untapped: Their extensive theoretical and practical knowledge of the environment and resource conservation is not given due consideration. In terms of economic participation, they are not paid for the environmental services that they already provide (example, reforestation). The potential contribution of rural women to climate mitigation by being part of the economic cycle is not sufficiently exploited. The economic empowerment of women through climate mitigation and adaptation fosters economic growth and socioeconomic development, reduces poverty, keeps environmental problems in check, and increases the potential for adaptation, which is to the benefit of both women and men. Enhancing the economic empowerment of women is a catalyst for development, which helps boost a country’s economic growth, promotes the socioeconomic development not only of women, but of the entire population, and helps reduce poverty. It is observed that less attention is paid to the potential that lies in the combination of climate mitigation/ adaptation and the economic empowerment of rural women. Yet mitigation or adaptation activities offer opportunities to advance the economic empowerment of women. In particular, this applies to work that is already being undertaken by women or activities in which women could assume a leading role. In developing countries, for instance, women frequently play a major role in the reforestation and afforestation of cleared land and in forest conservation, yet they have hardly ever benefited from these environmental services. The paper addresses the economic empowerment of rural women through climate change mitigation and adaptation. The study recommends that measures to promote the economic participation of women can be integrated into climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives. In order for rural women to play an economic role, an institutional, legal and political framework is required that enables and/or makes it easier for rural women to hold their own in the market. Concrete, promising project measures at the local level should therefore be combined with advisory services at the political level related to climate change and the economic empowerment of women, with a view to initiating structural reformÂ

Approaches to Economic Empowerment of Rural Women for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Implications for Policy

There are several ways of promoting women’s economic participation while also counteracting climate change. One approach in the field of climate mitigation is the promotion of renewable energies that help avoid greenhouse gas emissions. The potential of rural women as agents of change for climate mitigation and adaptation remains untapped: Their extensive theoretical and practical knowledge of the environment and resource conservation is not given due consideration. In terms of economic participation, they are not paid for the environmental services that they already provide (example, reforestation). The potential contribution of rural women to climate mitigation by being part of the economic cycle is not sufficiently exploited. The economic empowerment of women through climate mitigation and adaptation fosters economic growth and socioeconomic development, reduces poverty, keeps environmental problems in check, and increases the potential for adaptation, which is to the benefit of both women and men. Enhancing the economic empowerment of women is a catalyst for development, which helps boost a country’s economic growth, promotes the socioeconomic development not only of women, but of the entire population, and helps reduce poverty. It is observed that less attention is paid to the potential that lies in the combination of climate mitigation/ adaptation and the economic empowerment of rural women. Yet mitigation or adaptation activities offer opportunities to advance the economic empowerment of women. In particular, this applies to work that is already being undertaken by women or activities in which women could assume a leading role. In developing countries, for instance, women frequently play a major role in the reforestation and afforestation of cleared land and in forest conservation, yet they have hardly ever benefited from these environmental services. The paper addresses the economic empowerment of rural women through climate change mitigation and adaptation. The study recommends that measures to promote the economic participation of women can be integrated into climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives. In order for rural women to play an economic role, an institutional, legal and political framework is required that enables and/or makes it easier for rural women to hold their own in the market. Concrete, promising project measures at the local level should therefore be combined with advisory services at the political level related to climate change and the economic empowerment of women, with a view to initiating structural reformÂ

Association of Body Mass Index and Extreme Obesity With Long-Term Outcomes Following Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Background: Previous studies have reported a protective effect of obesity compared with normal body mass index (BMI) in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, it is unclear whether this effect extends to the extremely obese. In this large multicenter registry‐based study, we sought to examine the relationship between BMI and long‐term clinical outcomes following PCI, and in particular to evaluate the association between extreme obesity and long‐term survival after PCI. Methods and Results: This cohort study included 25 413 patients who underwent PCI between January 1, 2005 and June 30, 2017, who were prospectively enrolled in the Melbourne Interventional Group registry. Patients were stratified by World Health Organization–defined BMI categories. The primary end point was National Death Index–linked mortality. The median length of follow‐up was 4.4 years (interquartile range 2.0‐7.6 years). Of the study cohort, 24.8% had normal BMI (18.5‐24.9 kg/m2), and 3.3% were extremely obese (BMI ≥40 kg/m2). Patients with greater degrees of obesity were younger and included a higher proportion of diabetics (P<0.001). After adjustment for age and comorbidities, a J‐shaped association was observed between different BMI categories and adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for long‐term mortality (normal BMI, HR 1.00 [ref]; overweight, HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.78‐0.93, P<0.001; mild obesity, HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.76‐0.94, P=0.002; moderate obesity, HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.80‐1.12, P=0.54; extreme obesity HR 1.33, 95% CI 1.07‐1.65, P=0.01). Conclusions: An obesity paradox is still apparent in contemporary practice, with elevated BMI up to 35 kg/m2 associated with reduced long‐term mortality after PCI. However, this protective effect appears not to extend to patients with extreme obesity

Phase I/II study of S-1 combined with paclitaxel in patients with unresectable and/or recurrent advanced gastric cancer

Both paclitaxel and S-1 are effective against gastric cancer, but the optimal regimen for combined chemotherapy with these drugs remains unclear. This phase I/II study was designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD), recommended dose (RD), dose-limiting toxicity (DLT), and objective response rate of paclitaxel in combination with S-1. S-1 was administered orally at a fixed dose of 80 mg m−2 day−1 from days 1 to 14 of a 28-day cycle. Paclitaxel was given intravenously on days 1, 8, and 15, starting with a dose of 40 mg m−2 day−1. The dose was increased in a stepwise manner to 70 mg m−2. Treatment was repeated every 4 weeks unless disease progression was confirmed. In the phase I portion, 17 patients were enrolled. The MTD of paclitaxel was estimated to be 70 mg m−2 because 40% of the patients given this dose level (two of five) had DLT. The RD was determined to be 60 mg m−2. In the phase II portion, 24 patients, including five with assessable disease who received the RD in the phase I portion, were evaluated. The median number of treatment courses was six (range: 1–17). The incidence of the worst-grade toxicity in patients given the RD was 28 and 8%, respectively. All toxic effects were manageable. The response rate was 54.1%, and the median survival time was 15.5 months. Our phase I/II trial showed that S-1 combined with paclitaxel is effective and well tolerated in patients with advanced gastric cancer

Euclid preparation. XXVIII. Forecasts for ten different higher-order weak lensing statistics

Recent cosmic shear studies have shown that higher-order statistics (HOS) developed by independent teams now outperform standard two-point estimators in terms of statistical precision thanks to their sensitivity to the non-Gaussian features of large-scale structure. The aim of the Higher-Order Weak Lensing Statistics (HOWLS) project is to assess, compare, and combine the constraining power of ten different HOS on a common set of Euclid-like mocks, derived from N-body simulations. In this first paper of the HOWLS series, we computed the nontomographic (Ω$_{m}$, σ$_{8}$) Fisher information for the one-point probability distribution function, peak counts, Minkowski functionals, Betti numbers, persistent homology Betti numbers and heatmap, and scattering transform coefficients, and we compare them to the shear and convergence two-point correlation functions in the absence of any systematic bias. We also include forecasts for three implementations of higher-order moments, but these cannot be robustly interpreted as the Gaussian likelihood assumption breaks down for these statistics. Taken individually, we find that each HOS outperforms the two-point statistics by a factor of around two in the precision of the forecasts with some variations across statistics and cosmological parameters. When combining all the HOS, this increases to a 4.5 times improvement, highlighting the immense potential of HOS for cosmic shear cosmological analyses with Euclid. The data used in this analysis are publicly released with the paper

Higher Education in the melting pot

The idea of this book emerged from the Education Deans Forum (EDF) meeting held in Johannesburg in 2018. The forum discussed the twin issues of the 4IR and Decolonisation and how these were likely to impact the future development of Higher Education in South Africa. Essentially, this book provides scholarly analyses of a range of possible impacts of the two discourses. On one hand, the discourses are discussed as representing convergences and divergences in relation to their epistemological, ontological, axiological and methodological assumptions. On the other, they are portrayed as competing for dominance in the contemporary and future discourses in Higher Education. As a scholarly compilation of high-end research, the book is a must-read resource for academics generally and those in teacher education disciplines particularly. Issues of the automation of academic workspaces, impact of digital divides, the opportunities and constraints of the technologisation of curricula, pedagogies, teaching and learning and the intractable challenges of remote modalities of university instruction are dealt with by some of the leading thinkers in the South African academies