Entrepreneurial capital, social values and Islamic traditions: exploring the growth of women-owned enterprises in Pakistan

Main ArticleThis study seeks to explore the variables contributing to the growth of women-owned enterprises in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Based on a previously established multivariate model, it uses two econometric approaches: first classifying variables into predetermined blocks; and second, using the general to specific approach. Statistical analyses and in-depth interviews confirm that women entrepreneurs’ personal resources and social capital have a significant role in their business growth. Further, it reveals that the moral support of immediate family, independent mobility and being allowed to meet with men play a decisive role in the sales and employment growth of women-owned enterprises in an Islamic country such as Pakistan

Inequitable access to substance abuse treatment services in Cape Town, South Africa

BACKGROUND:Despite high levels of substance use disorders in Cape Town, substance abuse treatment utilization is low among people from disadvantaged communities in Cape Town, South Africa. To improve substance abuse treatment utilization, it is important to identify any potential barriers to treatment initiation so that interventions to reduce these barriers can be implemented. To date, substance abuse research has not examined the factors associated with substance abuse treatment utilization within developing countries. Using the Behavioural Model of Health Services Utilization as an analytic framework, this study aimed to redress this gap by examining whether access to substance abuse treatment is equitable and the profile of variables associated with treatment utilization for people from poor communities in Cape Town, South Africa. METHODS: This study used a case-control design to compare 434 individuals with substance use disorders from disadvantaged communities who had accessed treatment with 555 controls who had not accessed treatment on a range of predisposing, treatment need and enabling/restricting variables thought to be associated with treatment utilization. A hierarchical logistic regression was conducted to assess the unique contribution that the need for treatment, predisposing and enabling/restricting variable blocks made on substance abuse treatment utilization. RESULTS: Findings revealed that non-need enabling/restricting variables accounted for almost equal proportions of the variance in service utilization as the need for treatment variables. These enabling/restricting variables also attenuated the influence of the treatment need and predisposing variables domains on chances of treatment utilization. Several enabling/restricting variables emerged as powerful partial predictors of utilization including competing financial priorities, geographic access barriers and awareness of treatment services. Perceived severity of drug use, a need for treatment variable) was also a partial predictor of utilization. CONCLUSIONS: Findings point to inequitable access to substance abuse treatment services among people from poor South African communities, with non-need factors being significant determinants of treatment utilization. In these communities, treatment utilization can be enhanced by (i) expanding the existing repertoire of services to include low threshold services that target individuals with less severe problems; (ii) providing food and transport vouchers as part of contingency management efforts, thereby reducing some of the financial and geographic access barriers; (iii) introducing community-based mobile outpatient treatment services that are geographically accessible; and (iv) employing community-based outreach workers that focus on improving awareness of where, when and how to access existing treatment services

The biomechanics of amnion rupture: an X-ray diffraction study

Pre-term birth is the leading cause of perinatal and neonatal mortality, 40% of which are attributed to the pre-term premature rupture of amnion. Rupture of amnion is thought to be associated with a corresponding decrease in the extracellular collagen content and/or increase in collagenase activity. However, there is very little information concerning the detailed organisation of fibrillar collagen in amnion and how this might influence rupture. Here we identify a loss of lattice like arrangement in collagen organisation from areas near to the rupture site, and present a 9% increase in fibril spacing and a 50% decrease in fibrillar organisation using quantitative measurements gained by transmission electron microscopy and the novel application of synchrotron X-ray diffraction. These data provide an accurate insight into the biomechanical process of amnion rupture and highlight X-ray diffraction as a new and powerful tool in our understanding of this process

Mapping upland peat depth using airborne radiometric and lidar survey data

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.A method to estimate peat depth and extent is vital for accurate estimation of carbon stocks and to facilitate appropriate peatland management. Current methods for direct measurement (e.g. ground penetrating radar, probing) are labour intensive making them unfeasible for capturing spatial information at landscape extents. Attempts to model peat depths using remotely sensed data such as elevation and slope have shown promise but assume a functional relationship between current conditions and gradually accrued peat depth. Herein we combine LiDAR-derived metrics known to influence peat accumulation (elevation, slope, topographic wetness index (TWI)) with passive gamma-ray spectrometric survey data, shown to correlate with peat occurrence to develop a novel peat depth model for Dartmoor. Total air absorbed dose rates of Thorium, Uranium and Potassium were calculated, referred to as radiometric dose. Relationships between peat depth, radiometric dose, elevation, slope and TWI were trained using 1334 peat depth measurements, a further 445 measurements were used for testing. All variables showed significant relationships with peat depth. Linear stepwise regression of natural log-transformed variables indicated that a radiometric dose and slope model had an r2 = 0.72/0.73 and RMSE 0.31/0.31 m for training/testing respectively. This model estimated an area of 158 ±101 km2 of peaty soil >0.4 m deep across the study area. Much of this area (60 km2) is overlain by grassland and therefore may have been missed if vegetation cover was used to map peat extent. Using published bulk density and carbon content values we estimated 13.1 Mt C (8.1-21.9 Mt C) are stored in the peaty soils within the study area. This is an increase on previous estimates due to greater modelled peat depth. The combined use of airborne gamma-ray spectrometric survey and LiDAR data provide a novel, practical and repeatable means to estimate peat depth with no a priori knowledge, at an appropriate resolution (10 m) and extent (406 km2) to facilitate management of entire peatland complexes.The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for the thorough reviews, their suggestions improved this paper. This work was supported by South West Water [SK06855], Dartmoor National Park Authority [SK07279] and the South West Partnership for Environmental and Economic Prosperity (SWEEP). SWEEP was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/P011217/1)

High-fat overfeeding impairs peripheral glucose metabolism and muscle microvascular eNOS Ser1177 phosphorylation.

CONTEXT: The mechanisms responsible for dietary fat-induced insulin resistance of skeletal muscle and its microvasculature are only partially understood. OBJECTIVE: To determine the impact of high-fat overfeeding on postprandial glucose fluxes, muscle insulin signaling, and muscle microvascular eNOS content and activation. DESIGN: Fifteen non-obese volunteers consumed a high-fat (64%) high-energy (+47%) diet for 7 days. Experiments were performed before and after the diet. Stable isotope tracers were used to determine glucose fluxes in response to carbohydrate plus protein ingestion. Muscle insulin signaling was determined as well as the content and activation state of muscle microvascular eNOS. RESULTS: High-fat overfeeding impaired postprandial glycemic control as demonstrated by higher concentrations of glucose (+11%; P = 0.004) and insulin (+19%; P = 0.035). Carbohydrate plus protein ingestion suppressed endogenous glucose production to a similar extent before and after the diet. Conversely, high-fat overfeeding reduced whole body glucose clearance (-16%; P = 0.021) and peripheral insulin sensitivity (-26%; P = 0.006). This occurred despite only minor alterations in skeletal muscle insulin signaling. High-fat overfeeding reduced eNOS content in terminal arterioles (P = 0.017) and abolished the increase in eNOS Ser1177 phosphorylation that was seen after carbohydrate plus protein ingestion. CONCLUSION: High-fat overfeeding impaired whole-body glycemic control due to reduced glucose clearance, not elevated endogenous glucose production. The finding that high-fat overfeeding abolished insulin-mediated eNOS Ser1177 phosphorylation in the terminal arterioles suggests that impairments in the vasodilatory capacity of the skeletal muscle microvasculature may contribute to early dietary fat-induced impairments in glycemic control

Anthropogenic disturbance in tropical forests can double biodiversity loss from deforestation

Concerted political attention has focused on reducing deforestation1,2,3, and this remains the cornerstone of most biodiversity conservation strategies4,5,6. However, maintaining forest cover may not reduce anthropogenic forest disturbances, which are rarely considered in conservation programmes6. These disturbances occur both within forests, including selective logging and wildfires7,8, and at the landscape level, through edge, area and isolation effects9. Until now, the combined effect of anthropogenic disturbance on the conservation value of remnant primary forests has remained unknown, making it impossible to assess the relative importance of forest disturbance and forest loss. Here we address these knowledge gaps using a large data set of plants, birds and dung beetles (1,538, 460 and 156 species, respectively) sampled in 36 catchments in the Brazilian state of Pará. Catchments retaining more than 69–80% forest cover lost more conservation value from disturbance than from forest loss. For example, a 20% loss of primary forest, the maximum level of deforestation allowed on Amazonian properties under Brazil’s Forest Code5, resulted in a 39–54% loss of conservation value: 96–171% more than expected without considering disturbance effects. We extrapolated the disturbance-mediated loss of conservation value throughout Pará, which covers 25% of the Brazilian Amazon. Although disturbed forests retained considerable conservation value compared with deforested areas, the toll of disturbance outside Pará’s strictly protected areas is equivalent to the loss of 92,000–139,000 km2 of primary forest. Even this lowest estimate is greater than the area deforested across the entire Brazilian Amazon between 2006 and 2015 (ref. 10). Species distribution models showed that both landscape and within-forest disturbances contributed to biodiversity loss, with the greatest negative effects on species of high conservation and functional value. These results demonstrate an urgent need for policy interventions that go beyond the maintenance of forest cover to safeguard the hyper-diversity of tropical forest ecosystems

Analysis of skeletal muscle function in the C57BL6/SV129 syncoilin knockout mouse

Syncoilin is a 64-kDa intermediate filament protein expressed in skeletal muscle and enriched at the perinucleus, sarcolemma, and myotendinous and neuromuscular junctions. Due to its pattern of cellular localization and binding partners, syncoilin is an ideal candidate to be both an important structural component of myocytes and a potential mediator of inherited myopathies. Here we present a report of a knockout mouse model for syncoilin and the results of an investigation into the effect of a syncoilin null state on striated muscle function in 6–8-week-old mice. An analysis of proteins known to associate with syncoilin showed that ablation of syncoilin had no effect on absolute expression or spatial localization of desmin or alpha dystrobrevin. Our syncoilin-null animal exhibited no differences in cardiotoxin-induced muscle regeneration, voluntary wheel running, or enforced treadmill exercise capacity, relative to wild-type controls. Finally, a mechanical investigation of isolated soleus and extensor digitorum longus indicated a potential differential reduction in muscle strength and resilience. We are the first to present data identifying an increased susceptibility to muscle damage in response to an extended forced exercise regime in syncoilin-deficient muscle. This study establishes a second viable syncoilin knockout model and highlights the importance of further investigations to determine the role of syncoilin in skeletal muscle

Technical and Clinical Outcome of Talent versus Endurant Endografts for Endovascular Aortic Aneurysm Repair

The technical evolution of endografts for the interventional management of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) has allowed a continuous expansion of indications. This study compares the established Talent endograft with its successor, the Endurant endograft, taking individual aortoiliac anatomy into account.From June 2007 to December 2010, 35 patients with AAA were treated with a Talent endograft (33 men) and 36 patients with an Endurant endograft (34 men). Aortoiliac anatomy was evaluated in detail using preinterventional computed tomography angiography. The 30-day outcome of both groups were compared regarding technical and clinical success as well as complications including endoleaks.The Endurant group included more patients with unfavorable anatomy (kinking of pelvic arteries, p = 0.017; shorter proximal neck, p = 0.084). Primary technical success was 91.4% in the Talent group and 100% in the Endurant group (p = 0.115). Type 1 endoleaks occurred in 5.7% of patients in the Talent group and in 2.8% of those in the Endurant group (p = 0.614). Type 3 endoleaks only occurred in the Talent group (2.9% of patients; p = 0.493). Type 2 endoleaks were significantly less common in the Endurant group than in the Talent group (8.3% versus 28.6%; p = 0.035). Rates of major and minor complications were not significantly different between both groups. Primary clinical success was significantly better in the Endurant group (97.2%) than in the Talent group (80.0%) (p = 0.028).Endurant endografts appear to have better technical and clinical outcome in patients with difficult aortoiliac anatomy, significantly reducing the occurrence of type 2 endoleaks