Exploring the role of sugarcane in small-scale farmers’ livelihoods in the Noodsberg Area, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Participatory, mixed-methods research was conducted to study the role of sugarcane in small-scale sugarcane farmers’ livelihoods in the Noodsberg area, KwaZulu-Natal. Thirty-five farmers were visited at their homes and data was collected through semi-structured interviews, participatory sketch mapping, matrix scoring activities and informal field-based discussions. Results indicated that sugarcane was a key livelihood resource providing employment and income, and it generated more income than any other single agricultural enterprise. It was considered the most important crop in most households, even though it was grown within a diverse agricultural system including maize, beans, taro (amadumbe) and potatoes. Considering the important role of sugarcane as a cash crop in farmers’ livelihoods, further development of land to sugarcane in the Noodsberg area will continue to reduce poverty and improve the livelihoods of farmers.Keywords: farming systems, food security, poverty, rural development, small-scale growers, sugarcane

Psychological impacts of returning home during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey among Iranian students

Background: In addition to its potentially harmful physical consequences, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can cause various negative psychological consequences for individuals. One cohort likely to have been affected is university students who have had to return and study from their home cities due to the physical closures of universities. Objectives: The present study was conducted on students to assess psychological impacts (i.e., anxiety, depression, and stress) on predicting COVID-19 anxiety resulting from returning home and quarantining due to university closure. Methods: The study sample comprised 715 Iranian students who were asked to complete the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 Items (DASS-21) and the Corona Disease Anxiety Scale. Results: The mean scale scores for COVID-19 anxiety, stress, depression, and anxiety were 13.75 (out of 54), 6.68 (out of 21), 5.54 (out of 21), and 4.74 (out of 21), respectively. Significantly higher levels of COVID-19 anxiety were observed among students who had been infected with the virus or had family/friends infected with the virus (compared to individuals who had not). Moreover, students who lived with their friends reported significantly higher COVID-19 anxiety than those who lived with their families. Conclusions: The study also showed a positive association between psychological distress and COVID-19 anxiety among students who returned to their homes during the pandemic. The findings suggest that mental health interventions are needed for students and should be implemented in the early stages of future pandemics

Safety, tolerability and efficacy of peginterferon alpha-2a and ribavirin in chronic hepatitis C in clinical practice: The German Open Safety Trial

The combination treatment of peginterferon alpha-2a (PEG-IFN alpha-2a; Pegasys®) plus ribavirin (RBV) is recommended as a standard care for HCV infections. Side effects and aspects of efficacy and safety have to be balanced. This study evaluates clinical practice data on safety and efficacy of HCV treatment with PEG-IFN in combination with RBV over 24 and 48 weeks. This study was a phase III, multi-centre, open-label study with two treatment groups: PEG-IFN in combination with RBV for 24 or 48 weeks. The allocation to the treatment groups was at the discretion of the investigator; 309 patients entered active treatment: 90 patients received PEG-IFN plus RBV for 24 weeks and 219 patients PEG-IFN plus RBV for 48 weeks. A sustained virological response (SVR) was achieved in 48.9% of all patients. Genotype 1 patients with a 48-week combination treatment achieved an SVR of 39.9%. In the 48-week group a low baseline viral load was associated with a higher SVR rate (47.0% vs. 32.4%). For genotype 2 or 3 patients, the SVR was 67.9%. For these patients there was no relevant difference between patients with low and high viral loads; 97.7% of the patients experienced at least one adverse event. The incidence of serious adverse events was distinctly lower in the 24-week group (4.4% vs. 10.5%). This investigation confirms the well-known risk–benefit ratio found in controlled studies in a clinical practice setting. The safety profile is similar and shows the highest incidence of adverse events in the first 12 weeks of treatment

The European Training Network ETUDE (Encompassing Training in fUnctional Disorders across Europe) : a new research and training program of the EURONET-SOMA network recruiting 15 early stage researchers

Contains fulltext : 232532.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access

Insect Bio-inspired Neural Network Provides New Evidence on How Simple Feature Detectors Can Enable Complex Visual Generalization and Stimulus Location Invariance in the Miniature Brain of Honeybees

This work was supported by a Human Frontier Science Program Grant RGP0022/2014 to LC and Queen Mary University of London Scholarship to MR. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Rejection sensitivity as a vulnerability marker for depressive symptom deterioration in men

publishedVersio

Single-Photon-Single-Electron Transition for Interpretation of Optical Spectra of Nonspherical Metal Nanoparticles in Aqueous Colloidal Solutions

Noble metal nanoparticles—especially shape anisotropic particles—have pronounced resonances in the optical spectrum. These sensitive absorption modes attract great interest in various fields of application. For nonspherical particles, no analytic description of the absorption spectra according to the commonly used Mie theory is possible. In this work, we present a semi-empirical approach for the explanation of the optical spectra of shape anisotropic particles such as silver nanoprisms and gold nanorods. We found an interpretation of the optical absorption spectra which is based on a single-photon-single-electron transition. This model is in a better agreement with the basic assumptions of quantum mechanics than the electrodynamic model of a localized surface plasmon excitation. Based on microfluidically obtained Ag nanoprisms and Au nanorods with very high ensemble homogeneities, dependencies between the geometrical properties of the shape anisotropic noble metal nanoparticles and the spectral position of the longitudinal absorption mode could be derived, which show that the assumption of a composed relative permittivity and the inclusion of the Rydberg constant is sufficient to describe the optical properties of the shape anisotropic particles. Within the scope of the measuring accuracy, the calculations furthermore lead to the value of the refractive index of the particle-surrounding medium