Economics of bio-fortified cassava varieties (BCVs) adoption and its gender implication among farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria

Cassava bio-fortification is presented as a cost-effective approach, and it is predicted to provide some economic benefits to its adopter. On the other hand, gender-blind agricultural innovation delivery strategies impede short- and long-term impact among adopters. Due to a disregard for gender differences, many agricultural programs fall short of their objective. Recent studies in Nigeria are yet to adequately capture the gender differentials in the economic implication of BCVs adoption. This study, therefore, investigates the gender differentials in the economic implication of BCVs’ adoption among farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select a total of 180 respondents for the study. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and budgetary techniques. Descriptive statistics revealed a significant difference between the socio-economic characteristics of male and female cassava farmers. The results suggested that BCVs’ production is profitable and can serve as a panacea for the economic improvement of households. Study findings thus concluded that the adoption of BCVs is economically beneficial to cassava farmers and thus recommended that concerted efforts are made to ensure all farmers adopt BCVs for planting. The study proposes an integration of gender-responsive strategies to further enhance the delivery of BCVs in Nigeria

Religions and Social Progress:Critical Assessments and Creative Partnerships

This chapter engages with three important themes of the larger report: the meaning of progress, its uneven nature, and obstacles to future progress. It also considers a number of political and economic alternatives aimed to overcome these obstacles, emphasizing the need for diverse strategies, open-minded experimentation, and scientific assessment. While it may be impossible to ever reach agreement, the effort to calibrate different interpretations of progress remains an important exercise for political deliberation about how to make the world a better place. The very hope of moving forward implies some agreement on a destination. All of us must take responsibility for the future. Our discussion emphasizes the complexity and multidimensionality of the interpretive debate, but also calls attention to its ideological character. Social actors-individuals, groups, and even academic disciplines-tend to define progress in ways that serve their own interests. In a way, distributional conflict undermines our very efforts to better understand and mediate such conflict. The uneven character of progress is manifest in many different domains. Increases in the global reach of formally democratic institutions have been accompanied by growing concerns about their stability, efficacy, and consistency with democratic ideals

Risk predictions of physical aggression in acute psychiatric wards: Findings of a prospective study

This study was conducted using prospective methods to analyze predictions of the risk of physical aggression from patients with a mental illness and the variables used in these predictions. A total of 252 individuals participated in the study, all of whom were inpatients in acute psychiatric wards. Data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of two questions designed to determine the nature of predictions of the risk of physical aggression from mental health patients at admission and the variables used to make these predictions. Descriptive statistics and chi(2)-tests were used for the data analysis. For approximately two thirds of the patients (61.9%, n = 156), a low-level risk was predicted. The rate of patients predicted to demonstrate physical aggression was significantly higher. Nurses were better able to predict non-aggressive behavior than risks of aggressive behavior. To improve the accuracy of predicting which patients with a mental illness will show aggressive behavior, a risk assessment should be conducted during hospitalization. Using a person-centered approach, administrators in psychiatric settings should adopt an integrative perspective, considering individual and environmental factors, via a multi-disciplinary approach

High definition analyses of single cohort, whole genome sequencing data provides a direct route to defining sub-phenotypes and personalising medicine

Possession of a clinical or molecular disease label alters the context in which life-course events operate, but rarely explains the phenotypic variability observed by clinicians. Whole genome sequencing of unselected endothelial vasculopathy patients demonstrated more than a third had rare, likely deleterious variants in clinically-relevant genes unrelated to their vasculopathy (1 in 10 within platelet genes; 1 in 8 within coagulation genes; and 1 in 4 within erythrocyte hemolytic genes). High erythrocyte membrane variant rates paralleled genomic damage and prevalence indices in the general population. In blinded analyses, patients with greater hemorrhagic severity that had been attributed solely to their vasculopathy had more deleterious variants in platelet (Spearman ρ=0.25, p=0.008) and coagulation (Spearman ρ=0.21, p=0.024) genes. We conclude that rare diseases can provide insights for medicine beyond their primary pathophysiology, and propose a framework based on rare variants to inform interpretative approaches to accelerate clinical impact from whole genome sequencing

Low grade mosaicism in hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia identified by bidirectional whole genome sequencing reads through the 100,000 Genomes Project clinical diagnostic pipeline

For rare inherited diseases an important question is what type of clinical diagnostic test to select, for instance Sanger-based single genesequencing; a high read depth gene panel; whole exomesequencingor whole genome sequencing. There is emerging recognitionthat a transmissible parental variant present at less than expected heterozygous frequency (due to mosaicism) may escape detection by certain methods. This risk has been proposed as a factor infavourof higher depth sequencingstrategies. Here we report a case where barely 30-fold depth whole genome sequencing through the 100,000 Genomes Project identified low grade mosaicismthat had been missed by conventional Sanger sequencing

Whole genome sequences discriminate hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia phenotypes by non-HHT deleterious DNA variants

The abnormal vascular structures of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) often cause severe anemia due to recurrent hemorrhage, but HHT-causal genes do not predict the severity of hematological complications. We tested for chance inheritance and clinical associations of rare deleterious variants where loss-of-function causes bleeding or hemolytic disorders in the general population. In double-blinded analyses, all 104 HHT patients from a single reference centre recruited to the 100,000 Genomes Project were categorised on new MALO (more/as-expected/less/opposite) sub-phenotype severity scales, and whole genome sequencing data tested for high impact variants in 75 HHT-independent genes encoding coagulation factors, platelet, hemoglobin, erythrocyte enzyme and erythrocyte membrane constituents. Rare variants (all GnomAD allele frequencies 15 were supported by gene-level mutation significance cutoff (MSC) scores. CADD>15 variants were found for 1 in 10 patients within platelet genes; 1 in 8 within coagulation genes; and 1 in 4 within erythrocyte hemolytic genes. In blinded analyses, patients with greater hemorrhagic severity that had been attributed solely to HHT vessels had more CADD-deleterious variants in platelet (Spearman ρ=0.25, p=0.008) and coagulation (Spearman ρ=0.21, p=0.024) genes. However, the HHT cohort had 60% fewer deleterious variants in platelet and coagulation genes than expected (Mann Whitney p=0.021). In conclusion, HHT patients commonly have rare variants in genes of relevance to their phenotype, offering new therapeutic targets and opportunities for informed, personalised medicine strategies