Foreign direct investment (FDI) and the global food crisis. A study of the Windward Islands' agricultural sector.

Using panel data unit root tests and Johansen Co-integration tests, as well as the Engle-Granger -correction model to test for causality, this study examines the effect of FDI on agriculture sector productivity (x6), market size (x2), macroeconomic performance (x3), infrastructure (x4), competitiveness (x5), financial performance (x7) and governance (x8), in a sample of five Caribbean countries over the period 1970-2006. According to UNCTAD (2008), FDI is defined as investment made from outside of the economy of the investor with the objective of acquiring a lasting interest in or effective control over an enterprise. The results suggest that in general when evidence of causality is observed it runs from FDI to (x4). No causality was detected in either direction for (x2), (x5), (x6) and (x8). However, causality runs from FDI to (x3). A major policy implication of the findings is that the agriculture sector does not impact significantly on the attraction of FDI in these countries.FDI

Education and development in the caribbean: a cointegration and causality approach

This paper uses cointegration and vector error-correction models to analyse the causal relationship between education and development in Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago using annual time series data from 1964 to 1998. Expenditure on education per capita is used as the proxy for education, while gross national income (GNI) per capita is the proxy for development. The empirical results provide some evidence of bi-directional causality in the short in Jamaica. There is no evidence of causation running from per capita expenditure on education to per capita gross national income in either the short or long run in Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago. A major policy implication of the findings is that countries with higher per capita gross national income (GNI) seem to be spending more per capita on education.

A Simple Approach for Identifying Underperforming Schools

This paper outlines a purely statistical approach for evaluating school performance within a district. Three performance criteria are detailed: absolute performance, relative performance and conditional performance. The criteria are applied to the Barbadian secondary school system. The study finds that when the three criteria are used in conjunction they can identify schools that are consistently good or poor performers. In the case of Barbados, there was a general improvement in secondary school performance over the period, with no single school appearing consistently on the list of underperformers.Performance; Secondary Schools; Statistical Approach

Do exchange rates in caribbean and latin american countries exhibit nonlinearities?

This paper applies the recently developed Kapetanios et al. (2003) nonlinear stationary test to annual time series data on real exchange rates in selected Caribbean and Latin American countries over the period 1980-2003, to determine whether or not these real exchange rates exhibit nonlinearities. Generally, the ADF rejects the null hypothesis of a unit root in real exchange rates for most of the countries in our study, whereas the Kapetanios et al. (2003) test fails to reject the null hypothesis of a unit root in real exchange rates for most countries. The fact that the real exchange rates in most of the countries included in our study are nonlinear stationary implies that the nominal exchange rate and relative price are cointegrated irrespective of which price indices are used to compute the real exchange rate.

The Next Frontier for Finance Leasing in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper critically discussed the controversial avoidance of the equipment lease transactions from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Regulation of Secured Transactions Law. It gives a detailed account of the importance of equipment leasing in sub-Saharan Africa and developing countries, and why the CBN has failed to address the issue of access to finance by omitting this key element from its scope. It considers the utility of UNCITRAL’s Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions and the UNCITRAL Registry Guide as benchmarks for the reform of equipment leasing in sub-Saharan Africa using Nigeria as a focus country. a wholesale reform of equipment leasing in sub-Saharan Africa

Functional status and health-related quality of life of the Institutionalised elderly in selected Johannesburg areas

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Physiotherapy Johannesburg 2017BACKGROUND: Global life expectancy is on the rise and it is contributing to the growth of the population proportion of the elderly. More and more elderly are getting institutionalised. Functional status decline has been found to influence institutionalisation in the elderly while health-related quality of life seems to be better among the community dwelling elderly compared to the institutionalised elderly. As a result, there is increased interest on the functional status and health-related quality of life (QoL) of the institutionalised elderly. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the study were: to determine the demographic profile of the institutionalised elderly in Alexandra, Orange Grove and Yeoville areas of Johannesburg. to determine the health-related quality of life and functional status of the institutionalised elderly in Alexandra, Orange Grove and Yeoville areas of Johannesburg. to determine the relationship between functional status and health-related QoL of the institutionalised elderly in selected Johannesburg areas. to determine the predictors of functional status and health-related QoL of the institutionalised elderly in selected Johannesburg areas. METHOD: The study utilised a cross-sectional, quantitative descriptive design. Functional status was assessed using the Physical Self Maintenance Scale (PSMS) and the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scale while health-related QoL was assessed using the EQ-5D-5L. The functional status and health-related QoL of the participants were assessed as a onetime event over 11 weeks. The calculated sample size was 137 participants but only 116 residents met the inclusion criteria. Questionnaires were administered individually on participants who met the study inclusion criteria after obtaining consent to get activities of daily living (ADL), IADL and health-related QoL scores. Stata version 13 was used for data analysis. RESULTS: There were 105 participants, 66 (62.86%) female and 39 (37.14%) male. The mean age was 75.2 (±8.56) years and age range being 61-98 years. The median ADL score was 5. The median IADL score for female participants was 2 while the mean IADL score for male participants was 1.95±1.70. The median EQ-5D-5L index value was 0.69. Activities of daily living (r=0.685, p<0.001) and IADL (r=0.434, p<0.006 (male); r=0.369, p<0.003 (female)) were positively correlated with health-related QoL. The correlation between health-related QoL and ADL and that between QoL and IADL were strong and moderate respectively. Independent predictors of health-related QoL were race and religion. Religion was the only independent predictor of functional status (basic ADL) for both male and all participants. There was no independent predictor of functional status (IADL) for female participants. CONCLUSION: The age range of participants was a span of four decades of life beginning from the sixth decade. Females outnumbered male participants in the ratio 1.69:1. The functional status of participants was poor (IADL) to moderate (ADL). The health-related quality of life of participants was moderate. Functional status and health-related quality of life were positively associated with strong strength. Religion and race independently predicted functional status and health-related QoL. Although the data gotten from participants’ responses were sufficient for analyses, the findings from this study cannot be generalised to all the institutionalised elderly in the selected areas in Johannesburg because the number of residents who met the study inclusion criteria and participated in the study fell short of the calculated sample size. In essence, there is the need for more studies on the functional status and health-related quality of life of the institutionalised elderly.MT201

Mechanism of the delayed puberty onset in offspring of rats that consumed aqueous extract of hibiscus sabdariffa during pregnancy

Consumption of extracts of Hibiscus sabdariffa (family: malvaceae) during pregnancy has been shown to cause maternal malnutrition which has been linked to various adverse conditions like increasedpostnatal weight gain, delayed puberty onset and elevated body weight and body mass index at onset of puberty in the female offspring. The present study was designed to investigate the possible mechanism underlying this. Eighteen in-bred pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were on day 1 of pregnancy, randomly divided into three groups of six animals each. Group A (control) was given tap water to drink. Group B was given 0.6g extract/100ml while Group C was given 1.8g extract/100ml as their drinking solution. All groups received normal rat chow and their drinking solution ad libitum. Fluid and food intake and dam weights were measured daily throughout pregnancy. On gestational day 18, blood sample was withdrawn from each rat for estimation of plasma Na ionand corticosterone levels. On the day of delivery, the solutions of the extracts of Hibiscus sabdariffa were withdrawn and replaced with tap water. After 21 days, the pups were weaned to tap water and food ad libitum. Pups weight and age and body mass index at onset of puberty were measured. The results of the present study showed that the increased postnatal weight gain, delayed puberty onset and elevated body mass index at onset of puberty in the offspring of rats that consumed HS during pregnancy was associated with elevated maternalplasma Na ion and corticosterone levels during pregnancy

The impact of foreign direct investment on the development of manufacturing industries in the Nigerian economy

The present study investigates the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the development of manufacturing industries in Nigeria. The Study first reviews previous work on the developed countries (LDCs). Second, the study describes and analyses the changes in Nigeria's economic structure as a result of the establishment and growth of manufacturing industries between 1960 and 1974. Third, the study examines the comparative behaviour of foreign and local firms. in Nigerian manufacturing industries, with respect of employment policy, technology choice, industrial concentration, output growth, technical efficiency and their balance of payments impact. This examination is undertaken through the testing of specific hypotheses to highlight the impact of ownership characteristics in the above areas. In brief, the conclusions are: Empirical results, based on discriminant analysis and non-parametric tests indicate that nationally of ownership is significantly related to the choice of technology, employment policy, industrial concentration and output growth. Further, the production function analysis shows that separate production functions do exist for both foreign and local firms. However, foreign firms are not seen to possess greater levels of technical efficiency than local firms. Second, this study has shown that the potential for technological flexibility does appear to be present and therefore policies that affect incentives and that can potentially affect foreign and local investors' behaviour are certainly important. These include policies affecting relative prices as well as the general competitive environment

Responses of Myxobacteria to Plant-Related Chemosignals Suggests Their Roles in the Rhizobiome

In the rhizosphere, plants curate and maintain distinct rhizobiome, some of which serve as secondary defense mechanisms against pathogenic microorganisms. Additionally, in response to biotic stress, plants generate phytohormones which regulate signaling pathways to activate systemic resistance. These phytohormones contribute to the chemical space within the rhizosphere in addition to other low-molecular-weight metabolites used for cell-to-cell communication within species and across kingdoms. However, little is known about the influences of stress-related phytohormones on beneficial bacteria even though biocontrol strategies abundantly explore plant-beneficial microorganisms to manage pathogens in agricultural systems. Myxobacteria are competent predators of plant pathogens and have demonstrated responses when exposed to exogenous quorum signals produced by prey bacteria. Our objective was to study the impacts of exogenous phytohormones and plant-related signals on myxobacterial motility, global transcriptome, and metabolism to reveal the potential roles of these bacteria in the rhizosphere. The plant-associated myxobacterium Archangium sp. strain Cb G35 exhibited a p \u3c 0.05 increase in motility on exposure to methyljasmonate (MeJA), salicylic acid (SA), and abscisic acid (ABA) while transcriptomic studies revealed a ? fourfold change (p \u3c 0.05) in the transcription for 56 genes in response to MeJA exposure. Untargeted analysis of LC-MS/MS datasets of crude extracts from exposure experiments with Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking (GNPS) and XCMS-MRM tools further highlighted the activation and deactivation of specialized metabolites in response to these signals. Antibacterial assays of fractions from active extracts against E. coli revealed active metabolites of the terpene, fatty acid, and polyketide molecular families. However, before our investigations, only the bioactive roimantacene polyene, and p-hydroxyacetophenone amides have been associated with A. sp. While we have demonstrated the potential of observing signal-activated production of functional metabolites in the rhizosphere, our studies provide the condition-specific potential for discovering novel specialized metabolites that would contribute to natural product discovery

Maternal consumption of an aqueous extract of hibiscus Sabdariffa during lactation accelerates postnatal weight and delays onset of puberty in female offspring

The present study was designed to investigate whether maternal consumption of aqueous extract of Hibiscus sabdariffa (HS) during lactation will affect the postnatal growth and onset of puberty in the femaleoffspring. Eighteen in-bred virgin female Sprague-Dawley rats aged between 10-12 weeks and weighing 125 ± 5.5g (mean ± SEM) with two consecutive regular 4-day estrus cycles were randomly assigned to one of three groups of 6rats/group. One group had tap water (Control); another had 0.6g/100ml while the third group had 1.8g/100ml in their drinking water throughout lactation (21 days). Results showed that HS consumption during lactation significantly (