Living on the margin: Assessing the economic impacts of Landcare in the Philippine uplands

In the Philippines, about 38 per cent of the population resides in rural areas where poverty remains a significant problem. In 2006, 47 per cent of all households in Bohol Province fell below the national poverty line, with the percentage even higher in upland communities. These households often exist in marginal landscapes that are under significant pressure from ongoing resource degradation and rising input costs. This paper first explores whether the adoption of Landcare practices in a highly degraded landscape has resulted in improved livelihood outcomes for upland farming families in Bohol. Second, it analyses the potential for the piecemeal adoption of these measures to deliver tangible benefits at the watershed scale. Finally, using a BCA approach, these outcomes are compared to the costs of the research and extension projects that have helped achieve them.Landcare, Philippines, livelihoods, poverty, watershed, ACIAR,

Neointima formation is promoted by surgical preparation and inhibited by cyclic nucleotides in human saphenous vein organ cultures

AbstractIntimal thickening is an important cause of late coronary vein graft occlusion, which no variation of surgical technique or pharmacologic intervention has been shown to reduce. We used a recently developed quantitative organ culture of human saphenous vein to investigate whether surgical preparative injury promotes neointima formation. We also investigated the effects on neointima formation of the lipid-soluble cyclic nucleotide analogs, 8-Br-cyclic adenosine monophosphate and 8-Br-cyclic guanosine monophosphate, and the phosphodiesterase inhibitor, isobutylmethylxanthine. These agents are pharmacologic mimetics of endothelium-derived prostacyclin and nitric oxide, which elevate vascular smooth muscle cyclic adenosine monophosphate and cyclic guanosine monophosphate concentrations, respectively, and may normally suppress neointima formation. Surgical preparation was found to promote intimal thickening and neointimal smooth muscle cell proliferation by 42% and 48%, respectively. 8-Br-cyclic adenosine monophosphate, 8-Br-cyclic guanosine monophosphate, or isobutylmethylxanthine (which elevated endogenous cyclic adenosine monophosphate concentrations) inhibited intimal thickening by 80%, 40%, and 72%, respectively, at a concentration of 0.1 mmol/L. The results imply that surgical techniques that avoid preparative injury and vasodilator drugs that act by elevating cyclic adenosine monophosphate or cyclic guanosine monophosphate concentrations may reduce neointima formation in vein grafts. (J Thoracic Cardiovasc Surg 1995;109:2-12

Culturally Adapting an Internet-Delivered Mindfulness Intervention for Indonesian University Students Experiencing Psychological Distress: Mixed Methods Study

Background: Psychological distress is prevalent among university students. However, the availability of evidence-based mental health treatment remains limited in many low- and middle-income countries, including Indonesia. Internet-delivered, mindfulness-based interventions that reduce distress have potential for treating university student distress at scale. Unfortunately, evidence-based, internet-delivered mindfulness treatments are not yet available in Indonesia. Cultural adaptation of established evidence-based, internet-delivered mindfulness interventions is needed. Objective: In this paper, we describe the process of culturally adapting an Australian internet-delivered mindfulness program (Introduction to Mindfulness) to be relevant and appropriate for treating Indonesian university students’ psychological distress. Methods: To assist the cultural adaptation process, we used a systematic cultural adaptation framework and a mixed methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods. In study 1 (information gathering), we administered an internet-delivered questionnaire to Indonesian university students (n=248) to examine their preferences regarding an internet-delivered mindfulness intervention. In study 2 (preliminary design), a draft program was developed and independently reviewed by Indonesian stakeholders. Stakeholders (n=25) included local Indonesian mindfulness and mental health professionals (n=6) and university students (n=19), who were selected to maximize sample representativeness regarding personal and professional characteristics. To evaluate the initial design and cultural congruence of the internet-delivered mindfulness program in the Indonesian context, we conducted interviews and focus groups with stakeholders. Stakeholders also completed the Cultural Relevance Questionnaire. Results: In study 1, most Indonesian university students (240/248, 96.8%) reported openness to an internet-delivered mindfulness program. Most of interested students (127/240, 52.9%) preferred the length of the program to be 3 to 4 sessions, with 45.8% (110/240) preferring brief lessons taking only 15 to 30 minutes to complete. They (194/240, 80.8%) recommended that the program be accessible both through websites and mobile phones. In study 2, Indonesian stakeholders generally found the internet-delivered program to be highly culturally appropriate in terms of language, concepts, context, treatment goals, and depictions of students’ emotional and behavioral experiences. However, stakeholders also recommended some specific adaptations regarding the program’s delivery model (eg, combining visual and audio modalities when delivering psychoeducation), cultural components (eg, including more social and spiritual activities), program practicality (eg, including rewards to promote engagement), and design elements (eg, including additional culturally relevant illustrations). Following stakeholder feedback, a new culturally adapted Indonesian internet-delivered mindfulness program called Program Intervensi Mindfulness Daring Mahasiswa Indonesia was created. Conclusions: This study highlights the process and importance of cultural adaptation of an evidence-based mindfulness treatment and demonstrates how this may be achieved for internet-delivered psychotherapy programs. We found that a culturally adapted internet-delivered mindfulness program was relevant for Indonesian students with some adjustments to the programs’ content and delivery. Future research is now needed to evaluate the clinical benefit of this program

The Stellar Metallicity Distribution Function of the Galactic Halo from SDSS Photometry

We explore the stellar metallicity distribution function of the Galactic halo based on SDSS ugriz photometry. A set of stellar isochrones is calibrated using observations of several star clusters and validated by comparisons with medium-resolution spectroscopic values over a wide range of metal abundance. We estimate distances and metallicities for individual main-sequence stars in the multiply scanned SDSS Stripe 82, at heliocentric distances in the range 5 - 8 kpc and |b| > 35 deg, and find that the in situ photometric metallicity distribution has a shape that matches that of the kinematically-selected local halo stars from Ryan & Norris. We also examine independent kinematic information from proper-motion measurements for high Galactic latitude stars in our sample. We find that stars with retrograde rotation in the rest frame of the Galaxy are generally more metal poor than those exhibiting prograde rotation, which is consistent with earlier arguments by Carollo et al. that the halo system comprises at least two spatially overlapping components with differing metallicity, kinematics, and spatial distributions. The observed photometric metallicity distribution and that of Ryan & Norris can be described by a simple chemical evolution model by Hartwick (or by a single Gaussian distribution); however, the suggestive metallicity-kinematic correlation contradicts the basic assumption in this model that the Milky Way halo consists primarily of a single stellar population. When the observed metallicity distribution is deconvolved using two Gaussian components with peaks at [Fe/H] ~ -1.7 and -2.3, the metal-poor component accounts for ~20% - 35% of the entire halo population in this distance range.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap