DETERMINANTS OF SMALLHOLDER FARMERS’ ACCESS TO MOBILE PHONE BASED MONEY TRANSFER SERVICES – EVIDENCE FROM VOLTA REGION OF GHANA

Objective: Smallholder farmers’ access to Mobile Phone Based Money Transfer Services in Akatsi North District of Volta Region of Ghana under the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme. Methods: Primary data were collected from 300 farmers in beneficiary districts while secondary data were gathered from literatures and various actors. A multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting respondents for the study. The first stage involved selecting ten communities that benefited from the planting for food and jobs program in the Akatsi North district, while the second stage considered randomly selecting 30 beneficiary farmers in each community. Obtained data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and STATA-11 software. Results were presented in the form of descriptive statistics, cross tabulation, and Logit regression model. Results: Majority of respondents (74%) do not use Mobile Phone Based Money Transfer platform for any agricultural transaction. Is only 26% of the respondents that use the mobile money platform for their agribusiness activities. Out of the nine explanatory variables included in the Logit regression model, six of them were significant at p<0.01, p<0.05, and p<0.1. Significant factors include: Educational level of households, age, major occupation, accessibility of mobile money service provider, convenience to respondent, trust of the system, and availability of mobile money service. Conclusions: The availability and accessibility of Mobile Phone Based Money financial services among smallholder farmers is key to achieving competitive global business

Neuroplasticity: Unexpected Consequences of Early Blindness.

A pair of recent studies shows that congenital blindness can have significant consequences for the functioning of the visual system after sight restoration, particularly if that restoration is delayed

Visuohaptic convergence in a corticocerebellar network

The processing of visual and haptic inputs, occurring either separately or jointly, is crucial for everyday-life object recognition, and has been a focus of recent neuroimaging research. Previously, visuohaptic convergence has been mostly investigated with matching-task paradigms. However, much less is known about visuohaptic convergence in the absence of additional task demands. We conducted two functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments in which subjects actively touched and/or viewed unfamiliar object stimuli without any additional task demands. In addition, we performed two control experiments with audiovisual and audiohaptic stimulation to examine the specificity of the observed visuohaptic convergence effects. We found robust visuohaptic convergence in bilateral lateral occipital cortex and anterior cerebellum. In contrast, neither the anterior cerebellum nor the lateral occipital cortex showed any involvement in audiovisual or audiohaptic convergence, indicating that multisensory convergence in these regions is specifically geared to visual and haptic inputs. These data suggest that in humans the lateral occipital cortex and the anterior cerebellum play an important role in visuohaptic processing even in the absence of additional task demands

Multisensory Processes: A Balancing Act across the Lifespan.

Multisensory processes are fundamental in scaffolding perception, cognition, learning, and behavior. How and when stimuli from different sensory modalities are integrated rather than treated as separate entities is poorly understood. We review how the relative reliance on stimulus characteristics versus learned associations dynamically shapes multisensory processes. We illustrate the dynamism in multisensory function across two timescales: one long term that operates across the lifespan and one short term that operates during the learning of new multisensory relations. In addition, we highlight the importance of task contingencies. We conclude that these highly dynamic multisensory processes, based on the relative weighting of stimulus characteristics and learned associations, provide both stability and flexibility to brain functions over a wide range of temporal scales

A Ventral Visual Stream Reading Center Independent of Visual Experience

SummaryThe visual word form area (VWFA) is a ventral stream visual area that develops expertise for visual reading [1–3]. It is activated across writing systems and scripts [4, 5] and encodes letter strings irrespective of case, font, or location in the visual field [1] with striking anatomical reproducibility across individuals [6]. In the blind, comparable reading expertise can be achieved using Braille. This study investigated which area plays the role of the VWFA in the blind. One would expect this area to be at either parietal or bilateral occipital cortex, reflecting the tactile nature of the task and crossmodal plasticity, respectively [7, 8]. However, according to the metamodal theory [9], which suggests that brain areas are responsive to a specific representation or computation regardless of their input sensory modality, we predicted recruitment of the left-hemispheric VWFA, identically to the sighted. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that activation during Braille reading in blind individuals peaks in the VWFA, with striking anatomical consistency within and between blind and sighted. Furthermore, the VWFA is reading selective when contrasted to high-level language and low-level sensory controls. Thus, we propose that the VWFA is a metamodal reading area that develops specialization for reading regardless of visual experience

Effect of Credit on Cassava Productivity in Kintampo South District Using Cobb-Douglas Production Function Model

The study estimated the effect of credit on cassava productivity in Kintampo South District using Cobb-Douglas Production function model. Primary data was collected from 60 small- scaled cassava farmers while secondary data was gathered from literature. Snowball sampling technique was used to obtain the sample size of 60 small-scaled cassava farmers. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Cobb-Douglas Production function model. Results from the study showed that majority of the farmer’s accessed credit from VSLA groups. The study found that, credit has significant effect on cassava output level with an elasticity of 1.83 implying that a percentage increase in credit supply will lead to 1.83 % increase in cassava output. The study concludes that, the output of cassava could be increased considerably by obtaining credit. The study recommends the Ministry of Agriculture to use VSLA groups as vehicle of administering loans/credit to small-scaled farmers to increase productivity of farmers. Secondly, small-scaled farmers in Kintampo South District should be part of VSLA and other co-operate groups to acquire credit which will enable them purchase necessary input required for cassava farming activities

Evaluasi Special Event Surabaya Fashion Parade 2012 Yang Diselenggarakan Oleh Tunjungan Plaza Surabaya

Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui evaluasi special event Surabaya Fashion Parade 2012 yang diselenggarakan oleh Tunjungan Plaza Surabaya. Special event ini sudah diselenggarakan lima kali tetapi belum pernah dilakukan evaluasi. Jumlah peserta yang mengikuti kompetisi dalam special event ini tampak tidak konsisten. Evaluasi dilihat dari efek proses komunikasi yang terjadi antara panitia penyelenggara event dengan peserta kompetisi dalam event tersebut. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan metode studi kasus dan menggunakan teknik wawancara. Peneliti menemukan bahwa proses komunikasi antara panitia penyelenggara dengan peserta kompetisi dari mulai pra-event, saat pelaksanaan event hingga event berakhir telah berjalan dengan cukup lancar. Namun masih ada beberapa hal detail yang kurang diperhatikan oleh panitia

Gyrification in relation to cortical thickness in the congenitally blind

Greater cortical gyrification (GY) is linked with enhanced cognitive abilities and is also negatively related to cortical thickness (CT). Individuals who are congenitally blind (CB) exhibits remarkable functional brain plasticity which enables them to perform certain non-visual and cognitive tasks with supranormal abilities. For instance, extensive training using touch and audition enables CB people to develop impressive skills and there is evidence linking these skills to cross-modal activations of primary visual areas. There is a cascade of anatomical, morphometric and functional-connectivity changes in non-visual structures, volumetric reductions in several components of the visual system, and CT is also increased in CB. No study to date has explored GY changes in this population, and no study has explored how variations in CT are related to GY changes in CB. T1-weighted 3D structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired to examine the effects of congenital visual deprivation in cortical structures in a healthy sample of 11 CB individuals (6 male) and 16 age-matched sighted controls (SC) (10 male). In this report, we show for the first time an increase in GY in several brain areas of CB individuals compared to SC, and a negative relationship between GY and CT in the CB brain in several different cortical areas. We discuss the implications of our findings and the contributions of developmental factors and synaptogenesis to the relationship between CT and GY in CB individuals compared to SC. F