Rural finance for food security for the poor

In this Food Policy Review, the authors take a fresh look at the role of rural financial policy in improving household food security and alleviating poverty. They develop a conceptual framework for relating access to financial services to food security and review empirical findings on household demand for financial services. They explore the potentials for linking informal lenders (relatives, credit groups, and moneylenders) with the formal financial systems (banks and cooperatives). Then they review the constraints to development of rural financial markets and ways to circumvent these constraints by examining innovative institutions, especially those that include participation by the poor themselves.Financial institutions. ,Rural credit Developing countries. ,Rural poor. ,Food security Household. ,Poverty alleviation. ,Community participation. ,Microfinance ,

First-Principles Based Matrix-Green's Function Approach to Molecular Electronic Devices: General Formalism

Transport in molecular electronic devices is different from that in semiconductor mesoscopic devices in two important aspects: (1) the effect of the electronic structure and (2) the effect of the interface to the external contact. A rigorous treatment of molecular electronic devices will require the inclusion of these effects in the context of an open system exchanging particle and energy with the external environment. This calls for combining the theory of quantum transport with the theory of electronic structure starting from the first-principles. We present a rigorous yet tractable matrix Green's function approach for studying transport in molecular electronic devices, based on the Non-Equilibrium Green's Function Formalism of quantum transport and the density-functional theory of electronic structure using local orbital basis sets. By separating the device rigorously into the molecular region and the contact region, we can take full advantage of the natural spatial locality associated with the metallic screening in the electrodes and focus on the physical processes in the finite molecular region. This not only opens up the possibility of using the existing well-established technique of molecular electronic structure theory in transport calculations with little change, but also allows us to use the language of qualitative molecular orbital theory to interpret and rationalize the results of the computation. For the device at equilibrium, our method provides an alternative approach for solving the molecular chemisorption problem. For the device out of equilibrium, we show that the calculation of elastic current transport through molecules, both conceptually and computationally, is no more difficult than solving the chemisorption problem.Comment: To appear in Chemical Physic

Informal Caregiving in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): A High Caregiver Burden and Drastic Consequences on Caregivers’ Lives

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive autonomy loss and need for care. This does not only affect patients themselves, but also the patients’ informal caregivers (CGs) in their health, personal and professional lives. The big efforts of this multi-center study were not only to evaluate the caregivers’ burden and to identify its predictors, but it also should provide a specific understanding of the needs of ALS patients’ CGs and fill the gap of knowledge on their personal and work lives. Using standardized questionnaires, primary data from patients and their main informal CGs (n = 249) were collected. Patients’ functional status and disease severity were evaluated using the Barthel Index, the revised Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R) and the King’s Stages for ALS. The caregivers’ burden was recorded by the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Comorbid anxiety and depression of caregivers were assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Additionally, the EuroQol Five Dimension Five Level Scale evaluated their health-related quality of life. The caregivers’ burden was high (mean ZBI = 26/88, 0 = no burden, ≥24 = highly burdened) and correlated with patients’ functional status (rp = −0.555, p < 0.001, n = 242). It was influenced by the CGs’ own mental health issues due to caregiving (+11.36, 95% CI [6.84; 15.87], p < 0.001), patients’ wheelchair dependency (+9.30, 95% CI [5.94; 12.66], p < 0.001) and was interrelated with the CGs’ depression (rp = 0.627, p < 0.001, n = 234), anxiety (rp = 0.550, p < 0.001, n = 234), and poorer physical condition (rp = −0.362, p < 0.001, n = 237). Moreover, female CGs showed symptoms of anxiety more often, which also correlated with the patients’ impairment in daily routine (rs = −0.280, p < 0.001, n = 169). As increasing disease severity, along with decreasing autonomy, was the main predictor of caregiver burden and showed to create relevant (negative) implications on CGs’ lives, patient care and supportive therapies should address this issue. Moreover, in order to preserve the mental and physical health of the CGs, new concepts of care have to focus on both, on not only patients but also their CGs and gender-associated specific issues. As caregiving in ALS also significantly influences the socioeconomic status by restrictions in CGs’ work lives and income, and the main reported needs being lack of psychological support and a high bureaucracy, the situation of CGs needs more attention. Apart from their own multi-disciplinary medical and psychological care, more support in care and patient management issues is required

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE consortium identifies common variants associated with carotid intima media thickness and plaque

Carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) and plaque determined by ultrasonography are established measures of subclinical atherosclerosis that each predicts future cardiovascular disease events. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data in 31,211 participants of European ancestry from nine large studies in the setting of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. We then sought additional evidence to support our findings among 11,273 individuals using data from seven additional studies. In the combined meta-analysis, we identified three genomic regions associated with common carotid intima media thickness and two different regions associated with the presence of carotid plaque (P < 5 × 10 -8). The associated SNPs mapped in or near genes related to cellular signaling, lipid metabolism and blood pressure homeostasis, and two of the regions were associated with coronary artery disease (P < 0.006) in the Coronary Artery Disease Genome-Wide Replication and Meta-Analysis (CARDIoGRAM) consortium. Our findings may provide new insight into pathways leading to subclinical atherosclerosis and subsequent cardiovascular events

Genome-Wide Association Analysis for Severity of Coronary Artery Disease Using the Gensini Scoring System

Coronary artery disease (CAD) has a complex etiology involving numerous environmental and genetic factors of disease risk. To date, the genetic 9p21 locus represents the most robust genetic finding for prevalent and incident CAD. However, limited information is available on the genetic background of the severity and distribution of CAD. CAD manifests itself as stable CAD or acute coronary syndrome. The Gensini score quantifies the extent CAD but requires coronary angiography. Here, we aimed to identify novel genetic variants associated with Gensini score severity and distribution of CAD. A two-stage approach including a discovery and a replication stage was used to assess genetic variants. In the discovery phase, a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data of 4,930 CAD-subjects assessed by the Gensini score was performed. Selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were replicated in 2,283 CAD-subjects by de novo genotyping. We identified genetic loci located on chromosome 2 and 9 to be associated with Gensini score severity and distribution of CAD in the discovery stage. Although the loci on chromosome 2 could not be replicated in the second stage, the known CAD-locus on chromosome 9p21, represented by rs133349, was identified and, thus, was confirmed as risk locus for CAD severity

Genome-Wide Association Analysis for Severity of Coronary Artery Disease Using the Gensini Scoring System

Coronary artery disease (CAD) has a complex etiology involving numerous environmental and genetic factors of disease risk. To date, the genetic 9p21 locus represents the most robust genetic finding for prevalent and incident CAD. However, limited information is available on the genetic background of the severity and distribution of CAD. CAD manifests itself as stable CAD or acute coronary syndrome. The Gensini score quantifies the extent CAD but requires coronary angiography. Here, we aimed to identify novel genetic variants associated with Gensini score severity and distribution of CAD. A two-stage approach including a discovery and a replication stage was used to assess genetic variants. In the discovery phase, a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data of 4,930 CAD-subjects assessed by the Gensini score was performed. Selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were replicated in 2,283 CAD-subjects by de novo genotyping. We identified genetic loci located on chromosome 2 and 9 to be associated with Gensini score severity and distribution of CAD in the discovery stage. Although the loci on chromosome 2 could not be replicated in the second stage, the known CAD-locus on chromosome 9p21, represented by rs133349, was identified and, thus, was confirmed as risk locus for CAD severity

A transient presence: black visitors and sojourners in Imperial Germany, 1884-1914

The onset of German colonial rule in Africa brought increasing numbers of Black men and women to Germany. Pre-1914 the vast majority of these Africans can best be described as visitors or sojourners and the Black population as a whole was a transient one. This makes recovering their presence in the archival record exceptionally difficult and it is not surprising that the existing historiography almost exclusively focuses on individual biographies of well documented lives. Through utilising a number of newly digitised archival materials, particularly the Hamburg Passenger Lists, this article draws upon a database with information on 1092 individuals from sub-Saharan Africa who spent time in Germany over the period 1884-1914 in order to add considerable bread and depth to our understanding of the Black presence as a whole. It provides increasing empirical detail about the make-up and character of this fluid population - where visitors came from, why they came to Germany, their age on arrival - as well as more accurate detail on the temporal and, to a lesser extent, spatial distribution of visitors