Local traders and agricultural development in Dongola area: a study in rural capitalism from Northern Sudan

[Preface]:After an anthropological study of a Danagla village, Mushu, in 1974/5, many questions arose as to the process of agricultural development in the area which was beyond the scope of the first research. I developed an interest in the causes which contributed to the transformation of the Danagla peasant economy as it was in the period just before and after the Re-Conquest of the country in 1898, to the type of economy which is more and more becoming capitalist in the sense of the increasing role of capital in changing what was once a totally subsistence type of economy. I had a faint idea about the determinant factors on the development of the present socio-economic structures; basically these were premised on the prevailing production relations and their gradual change from those totally instituted in the kinship relations to those seemingly individualistic, secularized and commercial relations of production of today as seen in the different forms of sharecropping practised in the area. A possible determinant cause was sought in the activities of local entrepreneurs especially traders whose activities have had an important role in the agricultural developments and the economy of the area. The results of the fieldwork (extending from September 1976 to June 1977) are documented in this thesis.To study a region whose population is scattered in a vast number of villages and settlements along the river banks, in oases which are difficult to reach with conventional means of transport, and in the basins which have contributed a lot to the heterogeneity of the region, it was difficult to select a representative unit. Instead, I adopted a different approach which allowed for wider coverage of the region as a whole.Since I was concerned with the agricultural development I found it plausible to focus on one important dynamic factor in bringing about changes affecting that development - that is capital. In an arid zone the necessity for irrigation presupposes relatively large investment resources, and hence the focus on the process of capital accumulation within the peasant economy and also trading profits and their reinvestment in agriculture and trade.The study of the class of traders, the small shopkeepers scattered all over the villages, and wholesalers who are concentrated in the towns, allowed me a better chance of covering the whole region as a geographical entity and seeing the local differences in the forms of economic and social organization. The methods used were mainly documentary sources, interview schedules, life-histories and case studies. Sampling for the interviews (one for the study of pump schemes and one for the traders) posed a difficulty as the records were at variance with the real number of traders in the area, for example. The mode of selection of the sample from the traders for study is described in Chapter Six. The objective of interviewing the traders was to collect basic demographic data and to elucidate their activities past and present in agricultural investment (see Appendix 2). This necessitated the conducting of these interviews mostly by myself as the life histories of some of those interviewed were documented as well. From these most of the information on the history of trade, credit relations and development and organization of co-operatives was collected. Documents and case studies are mostly utilized in Chapter Two and Four regarding the history of the area and its population and the developments in the material means of production.However, non-traders and government officials provided me with indispensable information or helped to introduce me to potential informants on the history of the region, and its social organization especially the elderly informants without whose help it would be very difficult to document the recent history of otherwise neglected aspects of these people's life

Premature Breast Cancer Mammographic Detection Using Image Segmentation Approaches

In the current era digital image processing occupies a dynamic role in every aspect of human survival. Image processing refers to progress digital images and mined attributes from images. In this paper we describe the experimental testing ofMammographic approach based on research towards early breast cancer detection. The main objective is to detect breast cancer using computer aided automated detection scheme. We extracted variables from previous papers and refined the important variables for experiment then apply different samples of images to acquired using Mammographyimages

Unintentional childhood poisoning, epidemiology and strategies for the prevention and policy change in Pakistan

Poisoning is the fifth leading cause of unintentional injuries among young children. Agents most commonly ingested by young children include medicines, cleaning substances, hydrocarbons, pesticides and cosmetics. Children with less educated fathers, living in more crowded conditions and from lower income families are more predisposed to unintentional poisoning. Unsafe storage of medicines, chemicals and other hazardous substances is one of the leading reasons for childhood poisoning. Knowledge of parents and caregivers about prevention of poisoning may be the basis to prevent subsequent injuries. This paper is a review of the epidemiology of unintentional poisonings among young children (less than five years) and its risk factors especially in the context of Pakistan

Lycopene Prevents Development of Steatohepatitis in Experimental Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Model Induced by High-Fat Diet

We investigated the preventive effect of lycopene on nonalcoholic steatohepatitis-induced by high-fat diet in rats. Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 4 groups. They were fed standard diet, high-fat diet (HFD), high-fat diet plus lycopene at a dose of 2 mg/kg body weight and the high-fat diet lycopene at a dose of 4 mg/kg BW for a period of 6 weeks. Inflammation, steatosis, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), and cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP 2E1) expression increased significantly in the rats fed HFD and decreased in the rats administered by lycopene. Significantly elevated levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), tumor necrosis factor (TNF α), and serum and liver malondialdehyde (MDA) were observed in rats fed the high-fat diet as compared to the control rats (P < .01). Supplementation with lycopene lowered serum MDA and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) levels and elevated liver GSH level (P < .001). Insulin resistance was higher in the rats fed HFD than in rats supplemented with lycopene. The data indicate that supplementation with lycopene can reduce high-fat diet-induced oxidative stress to the cells

Agribusiness Entrepreneurs and their Market Share

Agribusiness venture has huge function in the economy to foster rural development in the nation The current agribusiness venture in UT of Jammu and Kashmir is mainly in the nature of food processing units They have implications on food security and essential necessities of human beings The present study aims at recognizing qualities shortcomings opportunities and threats for agribusiness ventures with economic and financial perspectives in UT of Jammu and Kashmir to capture market shar

Hepatocellular carcinoma in Native South Asian Pakistani population; trends, clinico-pathological characteristics & differences in viral marker negative & viral-hepatocellular carcinoma

Background HCC is the fifth most common cancer globally. Our study was conducted to (1)investigate the trends and clinico-pathological characteristics of Hepatocellular carcinoma among native South Asian patients in Pakistan, (2)to estimate the prevalence as well as the trends of viral marker negative HCC and (3) to compare the clinico-pathological, radiological characteristics, applicability of treatment at diagnosis and prognostic factors among patients with both viral marker negative and viral marker positive-HCC being consulted at Aga Khan University Hospital(AKUH), Karachi, Pakistan. Method Patients ≥18 years, already diagnosed to have HCC and visiting AKUH during 1999–2009 were identified using ICD code 1550. The diagnosis of HCC was made in the presence of characteristic features of HCC on triple-phasic CT scan/MRI or with histological findings on biopsy. Results 645 patients were enrolled. Of these 546(84.7%) were viral-HCC and 99(15.3%) were viral marker negative HCC. Among viral-HCC group underlying etiology of cirrhosis was HCV in 67.9%, HBV in 21.8% and concomitant HBV with HCV or HDV in 10.3% cases. Majority (62.8%) patients had advanced HCC. Larger tumor size (p \u3c 0.001), shorter duration between diagnosis of cirrhosis and HCC (p 0.03), concomitant Diabetes Mellitus (p \u3c 0.001) were found significant factors associated with viral marker negative HCC. Conclusion The burden of hepatocellular carcinoma is rising among native South Asian Pakistani population and the viral marker negative HCC are not uncommon in our population. Viral marker negative HCC tend not to be under surveillance as compared to viral-HCC and are diagnosed mostly at advanced stage & when they became symptomatic

Cooperative offloading based on online auction for mobile edge computing

In the field of edge computing, collaborative computing offloading, in which edge users offload tasks to adjacent mobile devices with rich resources in an opportunistic manner, provides a promising example to meet the requirements of low latency. However, most of the previous work has been based on the assumption that these mobile devices are willing to serve edge users, with no incentive strategy. In this paper, an online auction-based strategy is proposed, in which both users and mobile devices can interact dynamically with the system. The auction strategy proposed in this paper is based on an online approach to optimize the long-term utility of the system, such as start time, length and size, resource requirements, and evaluation valuation, without knowing the future. Experiments verify that the proposed online auction strategy achieves the expected attributes such as individual rationality, authenticity and computational ease of handling. In addition, the index of theoretical competitive ratio also indicates that the proposed online mechanism realizes near-offline optimal long-term utility performance