Modelling the Impact of Credit on Intensification in Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems: A Case Study from Ethiopia

Access to credit is one strategy for promoting the adoption of yield-enhancing technologies. However, advancing credit to smallholder farmers for encouraging technology adoption is a complex policy issue. The objective of this paper is to identify appropriate and sustainable credit repayment policies to encourage intensification in the Ethiopian Highlands. Using a household model, we analyze the impact of advancing in-kind credit in the form of fertilizer and seed to smallholder farmers in the Ethiopian highlands and alternative credit repayment strategies. The results indicate that in kind input credit of fertilizer and seed provided to farmers in the highland of Ethiopia increased the value of household crop output moderately and hence allowed the household to increase its consumption. This scheme requires borrowers to sell their crop immediately at harvest to repay their credit. An alternative repayment scheme of extending the repayment period to allow households to capture seasonal price variation is proposed. The amount repaid is also tied to yields of wheat.Agricultural Finance,

A cross-modal component of alexithymia and its relationship with performance in a social cognition task battery

Background The personality trait alexithymia describes an altered emotional awareness that is associated with a range of social impairments and constitutes a transdiagnostic risk factor for various psychopathologies. Despite the characteristic interoceptive deficits in alexithymia, it is predominantly assessed via self-reports. This can result in unreliable measurements and arguably contributes to the prevailing uncertainty regarding its components, including constricted imaginal processes and emotional reactivity. Methods The current study employed an interview and two validated questionnaires to derive a shared component of multi-modally assessed alexithymia in a German non-clinical sample (n = 78) via prinicipal component analysis. This component was used as a predictor for performance in four behavioural social cognition tasks. The relative importance of this predictor against related variables was assessed via dominance analysis. Results The identified component reflected cognitive alexithymia. Higher cognitive alexithymia scores were associated with less affective distress in an ostracizing task. Dominance analysis revealed the dominance of competing autism traits relative to cognitive alexithymia and competing predictors empathy, depression, and anxiety, in predicting affective distress. Limitations Emotional reactivity was only assessed via self-report and no implicit measures of alexithymia were employed. Due to the low reliability of the self-report measure, no measure of emotional reactivity could be included in the principal component analysis. Conclusions Our results provide compelling evidence that cognitive interoceptive deficits are at the core of alexithymia across assessment modalities. Behavioural data suggest that these deficits result in diminished emotional sensitivity to high-pressure social situations, which may cause a lack of behavioural adaptation

Medication-enhanced psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder: Recent findings on oxytocin’s involvement in the neurobiology and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder

Background: Traumatic experiences may result in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is characterized as an exaggerated fear response that cannot be extinguished over time or in safe environments. What are beneficial psychotherapeutic treatment options for PTSD patients? Can oxytocin (OXT), which is involved in the stress response, and safety learning, ameliorate PTSD symptomatology and enhance psychotherapeutic effects? Here, we will review recent studies regarding OXT’s potential to enhance psychotherapeutic therapies for PTSD treatment. Method: We conducted a literature review on the neurobiological underpinnings of PTSD especially focusing on OXT’s involvement in the biology and memory formation of PTSD. Furthermore, we researched successful psychotherapeutic treatments for PTSD patients and discuss how OXT may facilitate observed psychotherapeutic effects. Results: For a relevant proportion of PTSD patients, existing psychotherapies are not beneficial. OXT may be a promising candidate to enhance psychotherapeutic effects, because it dampens responses to stressful events and allows for a faster recovery after stress. On a neural basis, OXT modulates processes that are involved in stress, arousal and memory. OXT effectively counteracts memory impairments caused by stress and facilitates social support seeking which is a key resilience factor for PTSD and which is beneficial in psychotherapeutic settings. Conclusion: OXT has many characteristics that are promising to positively influence psychotherapy for PTSD patients. It potentially reduces intrusions, but preserves memory of the event itself. Introducing OXT into psychotherapeutic settings may result in better treatment outcomes for PTSD patients. Future research should directly investigate OXT’s effects on PTSD, especially in psychotherapeutic settings

Assessing the distributional impact of technical change in livestock and grains production in developing countries

This paper outlines a general framework for analysing the distributional impact of commodity and factor price changes on the welfare of disaggregate households. The impact may be decomposed into an average effect and the departures from that average. The latter departures may be attributed to interactions between the commodity price changes and differences in consumption shares, on the one hand, and interactions between factor price changes and differences in factor earnings shares, on the other hand. Differences in consumption shares across households are estimated at the quintile level, using the International Comparisons Project (ICP) database in conjunction with the Deninger Squire database on income distribution. Estimated differences in factor income shares are obtained by combining information on total factor earnings, with observations on income by quintile, and initial estimates of the factor earnings pattern by quintile. Regional price impacts of technological change are estimated using the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model of global trade. We find that, in the case of Korea, Sri Lanka and Zambia, technological change in grains benefits the poorest house- holds relatively more than a comparable improvement in livestock productivity. The opposite is true in Thailand. With the exception of the Zambia livestock sector, technical progress in either livestock or grains benefits poorer households relatively more than their wealthier counterparts. While this stems primarily from their larger food consumption share, improvements in unskilled wages also play a role

Helium ventilation for treatment of post-cardiac arrest syndrome:A safety and feasibility study

AbstractAimBesides supportive care, the only recommended treatment for comatose patients after cardiac arrest is target temperature management. Helium reduces ischaemic injury in animal models, and might ameliorate neurological injury in patients after cardiac arrest. As no studies exist on the use of helium in patients after cardiac arrest we investigated whether this is safe and feasible.MethodsThe study was an open-label single arm intervention study in a mixed-bed academic intensive care unit. We included 25 patients admitted after circulatory arrest, with a presenting rhythm of ventricular fibrillation or pulseless tachycardia, return of spontaneous circulation within 30min and who were treated with hypothermia. Helium was administrated in a 1:1 mix with oxygen for 3h. A safety committee reviewed all ventilation problems, complications and causes of mortality.ResultsHelium ventilation was started 4:59±0:52 (mean±SD)h after circulatory arrest. In one patient, helium ventilation was discontinued prematurely due to oxygenation problems. This was caused by pre-existing pulmonary oedema, and imposed limitations to PEEP and FiO2 by the study protocol, rather than the use of helium ventilation. Sixteen (64%) patients had a favourable neurological outcome.ConclusionsWe found that helium ventilation is feasible and can be used safely in patients treated with hypothermia after cardiac arrest. No adverse events related to the use of helium occurred during the three hours of administration

Neurokinin-1 Receptor Signalling Impacts Bone Marrow Repopulation Efficiency

Tachykinins are a large group of neuropeptides with both central and peripheral activity. Despite the increasing number of studies reporting a growth supportive effect of tachykinin peptides in various in vitro stem cell systems, it remains unclear whether these findings are applicable in vivo. To determine how neurokinin-1 receptor (NK-1R) deficient hematopoietic stem cells would behave in a normal in vivo environment, we tested their reconstitution efficiency using competitive bone marrow repopulation assays. We show here that bone marrow taken from NK-1R deficient mice (Tacr1−/−) showed lineage specific B and T cell engraftment deficits compared to wild-type competitor bone marrow cells, providing evidence for an involvement of NK-1R signalling in adult hematopoiesis. Tachykinin knockout mice lacking the peptides SP and/or HK-1 (Tac1−/−, Tac4−/− and Tac1−/−/Tac4−/− mice) repopulated a lethally irradiated wild-type host with similar efficiency as competing wild-type bone marrow. The difference between peptide and receptor deficient mice indicates a paracrine and/or endocrine mechanism of action rather than autocrine signalling, as tachykinin peptides are supplied by the host environment

Assessment of reward-related brain function after a single-dose of oxytocin in autism: A randomized controlled trial

Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by difficulties in social communication and interaction, which have been related to atypical neural processing of rewards, especially in the social domain. Since intranasal oxytocin has been shown to modulate activation of the brain’s reward circuit, oxytocin might ameliorate the processing of social rewards in ASD and thus improve social difficulties. Methods In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover fMRI study, we examined effects of a 24 IU dose of intranasal oxytocin on reward-related brain function in 37 men with ASD without intellectual impairment and 37 age- and IQ-matched control participants. Participants performed an incentive delay task that allows the investigation of neural activity associated with the anticipation and receipt of monetary and social rewards. Results Non-significant tests suggested that oxytocin did not influence neural processes related to the anticipation of social or monetary rewards in either group. Complementary Bayesian analyses indicated moderate evidence for a null model, relative to an alternative model. Our results are inconclusive regarding possible oxytocin effects on amygdala responsiveness to social rewards during reward consumption. There were no significant differences in reward-related brain function between the two groups under placebo. Conclusions Our results do not support the hypothesis that intranasal oxytocin generally enhances activation of reward-related neural circuits in men with and without ASD

Military Training Mission in Iraq: An Exploratory Case Study Research

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how military training is being conducted by NATO coalition forces in Iraq. Thus, the intent of this paper is to discuss the implications of existing misalignments between the military forces that are providing the training and those receiving it. To that end, we have used an exploratory case study research, which included multiple sources of data collection for corroboration and triangulation purposes. The results that emerged from the content analysis showed two types of outcomes that may be relevant to improve the military training in Iraq. The first outcome is identified as the intangible actions, which were mainly focused on social relations, with the intent of narrowing the cultural gap between the international coalition and Iraqi forces. Without surprising, a second outcome is identified as tangible actions, which were associated with training programs and the establishment of tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) relevant to small and medium military units. Future research should focus on programs of “training the trainers” in order to develop long-term teaching and move forward with sustainable Iraqi Security Forces (ISF).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Hip Fracture Surgery in Elderly Patients (HIPELD) study: protocol for a randomized, multicenter controlled trial evaluating the effect of xenon on postoperative delirium in older patients undergoing hip fracture surgery

BackgroundStrategies to protect the brain from postoperative delirium (POD) after hip fracture are urgently needed. The development of delirium often is associated with the loss of independence, poor functional recovery, and increased morbidity, as well as increases in length of hospital stay, discharges to nursing facilities, and healthcare costs. We hypothesize that xenon may reduce the burden of POD, (i) by avoiding the need to provide anesthesia with a drug that targets the γ-amino-butyric acid (GABA)A receptor and (ii) through beneficial anesthetic and organ-protective effects.Methods and designAn international, multicenter, phase 2, prospective, randomized, blinded, parallel group and controlled trial to evaluate the incidence of POD, diagnosed with the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM), in older patients undergoing hip fracture surgery under general anesthesia with xenon or sevoflurane, for a period of 4 days post surgery (primary outcome) is planned. Secondary objectives are to compare the incidence of POD between xenon and sevoflurane, to evaluate the incidence of POD from day 5 post surgery until discharge from hospital, to determine the time to first POD diagnosis, to evaluate the duration of POD, to evaluate the evolution of the physiological status of the patients in the postoperative period, to evaluate the recovery parameters, to collect preliminary data to evaluate the economical impact of POD in the postoperative period and to collect safety data. Patients are eligible if they are older aged (≥ 75 years) and assigned to a planned hip fracture surgery within 48 h after the hip fracture. Furthermore, patients need to be willing and able to complete the requirements of this study including the signature of the written informed consent. A total of 256 randomized patients in the 10 participating centers will be recruited, that is, 128 randomized patients in each of the 2 study groups (receiving either xenon or sevoflurane).Trial registrationEudraCT Identifier: 2009-017153-35; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0119927