5,423 research outputs found
FARM-AGRIBUSINESS LINKAGES IN SOUTH AFRICA: EMPOWERING DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES THROUGH LINKS WITH AGRIBUSINESS
Agribusiness, Community/Rural/Urban Development,
LINKING AGRIBUSINESS AND SMALL-SCALE FARMERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: IS THERE A NEW ROLE FOR CONTRACT FARMING?
This article examines a new role for contract farming in developing countries in the light of the industrialization of agriculture and the globalization of world markets. A theoretical rationale for contracting in developing countries is developed on the basis of adopting new institutional economic theory for the purpose of matching governance forms to market failure problems and transaction characteristics. The history of contract farming is reviewed, together with the advantages and disadvantages to the various players, for the purpose of developing a list of key success factors, problems and some possible solutions.Agribusiness, Farm Management,
The Global Fight against the Stigma of Schizophrenia
Stigma attached to mental illness is the greatest obstacle to the improvement of the life of people with mental illness and their families. A global campaign hopes to remove this obstacle
Contracting arrangements in agribusiness procurement practices in South Africa
Contracting arrangements in agribusiness procurement practices in South AfricaProcurement, contracting, agro-processing,
Hidradenitis Suppurativa : clinical studies with focus on evaluation
Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of mainly
unknown aetiology which in most cases involves axillae or groins and that
can last for decades. In this thesis different clinical aspects of HS are
studied: development of a clinical scoring system, relation to smoking
and obesity, outcome of laser surgery, bacteraemia in HS patients and
distribution of the neuroendocrine marker protein gene product (PGP) 9.5
in HS skin biopsies. In Paper I the objective is to evaluate the modified
Hidradenitis Suppurativa Score (HSS) and to study the impact of BMI and
smoking habits on disease severity. Altogether 246 HS patients completed
the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) questionnaire and 115 were
scored by HSS. Points were given for regions, types of lesion (nodules,
fistulas), total area involved, and whether lesions were separated by
normal skin. A positive correlation of fair degree between HSS and DLQI
was found, as well as significant higher median scores in more advanced
HS, in smokers compared to non smokers and in obese women compared to
those of normal weight, respectively. The results indicate that the HSS
reflects disease severity, and may be a relevant outcome measure in
clinical trials. In Paper II scanner-assisted carbon dioxide laser
treatment with subsequent healing by secondary intention is evaluated in
34 HS patients, with in total 67 operating sites. They were interviewed
by telephone about recurrences and end results, after a mean follow-up
time of 34.5 (range 7 87) months. Four patients had had recurrences in
one of the treated areas. In twelve cases, lesions had developed
separated from the initial surgical site by >5 cm. Twenty-five patients
had flare-ups of HS lesions in another anatomical region. Eight had no
symptoms of HS at all during the follow-up period. Mean healing time was
4 (range 3 5) weeks. The conclusion is that scanner-assisted carbon
dioxide laser treatment of HS is an efficient treatment, well accepted by
the patients. In Paper III the objective is to determine the number and
type of bacteria circulating in the bloodstream in HS patients undergoing
carbon dioxide laser surgery. Blood samples were taken before, during and
after surgery in 21 patients with HS Hurley stage II, and from five
healthy controls. Bacterial growth in the first blood sample was found in
nine patients, from the second in ten and from the third in six. In one
patient, bacteria were detected in all the three samples. The dominating
bacteria were coagulase- negative staphylococci, of which most were
subtyped as S. warneri. In six patients all samples were negative, which
may indicate that the method of surgery itself caused no spread of
bacteria. In Paper IV the presence and distribution of the nerve
fibre-marker PGP 9.5 is investigated by immunohistochemistry. Biopsies
were taken from the groin or axilla of 16 HS patients and 12 healthy
controls. The median number of PGP 9.5 positive profiles was decreased in
lesional epidermis, yet statistically significant only in the groin. A
similar difference was found in lesional dermis of the axilla, whereas in
the lesional upper dermis of the groin the median number of profiles was
increased. Cells with strong PGP 9.5 immunofluorescence were few or
absent in epidermis, but significantly increased in lesional dermal skin
of the groin. It is possible that PGP 9.5 positive nerve fibres and cells
have pathological roles in HS, but further investigations are needed
The Effect of Distance to Formal Health Facility on Childhood Mortality in Rural Tanzania, 2005-2007.
Major improvements are required in the coverage and quality of essential childhood interventions to achieve Millennium Development Goal Four (MDG 4). Long distance to health facilities is one of the known barriers to access. We investigated the effect of networked and Euclidean distances from home to formal health facilities on childhood mortality in rural Tanzania between 2005 and 2007. A secondary analysis of data from a cohort of 28,823 children younger than age 5 between 2005 and 2007 from Ifakara Health and Demographic Surveillance System was carried out. Both Euclidean and networked distances from the household to the nearest health facility were calculated using geographical information system methods. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to investigate the effect of distance from home to the nearest health facility on child mortality. Children who lived in homes with networked distance>5 km experienced approximately 17% increased mortality risk (HR=1.17; 95% CI 1.02-1.38) compared to those who lived <5 km networked distance to the nearest health facility. Death of a mother (HR=5.87; 95% CI 4.11-8.40), death of preceding sibling (HR=1.9; 95% CI 1.37-2.65), and twin birth (HR=2.9; 95% CI 2.27-3.74) were the strongest independent predictors of child mortality. Physical access to health facilities is a determinant of child mortality in rural Tanzania. Innovations to improve access to health facilities coupled with birth spacing and care at birth are needed to reduce child deaths in rural Tanzania
Recent research activities in WHO's mental health programme
The mental health programme of WHO has been formulated through a process of consultation within WHO, with other United Nations bodies, with Governments, with the scientific community and with various non-governmental organizations (Sartorius, 1978; WHO, 1983 a; Lambo & Sartorius, in the press
Positive employment effects of increasing material efficiency
As raw and processed materials constitute a major share of the cost of inputs to industrial production in all developed countries and since the raw material crisis in 2009 revealed the criticality of the raw material supply worldwide, the increasingly efficient use of material resources has become an important point on the political agenda. One way to promote this increase is funding of research in efficiency-increasing technology innovations. Data describing the physical and economic effects of sixteen such innovations are used to model on the basis of input-output analysis the employment effect of these technologies once their full application potential in Germany would be exploited. It turns out that the employment effect is positive and its strong robustness is based on the combination of three promoting factors, each of which alone increases the likelihood of increasing employment. These factors refer to the profitability of efficiency-increasing technologies and to the import of foreign value added and the change in labour productivity characterizing many instances of material efficiency increase
Evaluating mental health services. A world perspective
Evaluations of mental health services are much in demand. Their results are supposed to help in improving the quality of mental health care and in making them economically better viable. Yet, world-wide there is: 1) little agreement about the content of terms such as evaluation, mental health service, outcome of an activity although these and other terms are widely used; 2) uncertainty about the best use of results of evaluative research; 3) lack of consensus about who should evaluate what and by what metho
- …