APPLICATION OF ISLAMIC MODES FOR MICROFINANCE IN SUDAN: A CASE STUDY OF RAHAD SCHEME

     Microfinance has become one of the most important mechanisms to fight poverty and economic development in the world. Sudan like other developing countries is depending on microfinance to achieve poverty alleviation and economic development. The Central Bank of Sudan has adopted microfinance programs since it is one of the appropriate mechanisms that help banks to perform their social and economic role. The idea of solidarity groups (SGs) started in Bangladesh as a solution of the warranty problem that cannot secured by small farmers. In Sudan solidarity groups are primarily introduced by the Agricultural Bank of Sudan (Fau branch) to help small farmers in the Rahad agricultural scheme who lack the sufficient guarantee to a quire loans needed to fulfill their agricultural production obligations. The aim of this paper has two folds, first to outline microfinance environment and policies of Sudan under Islamic modes, second synthesize empirical study on the case of Rahad scheme as an example for microfinance with Islamic modes to identify socioeconomic factors affecting farmer's decision to join solidarity groups. The study used secondary data to review the general environment of finance through Islamic forms in Sudan, for the case under study, a primary data were collected using structured questionnaire, a sample of 120 farmers (60 farmers joined solidarity group and 60 of self-financed farmers) were selected randomly from the scheme. A binary logistic regression model (Logit) was used to estimate the correlation between the dependent variable of joining of the solidarity groups, and independents variables namely, educational level, farm location, machinery possession, marital status, land ownership, animal's ownership, risk exposure and financial ability. A paired samples (T) test used to examine and estimate the difference between two paired samples means of costs and returns. The reviewed policies of Islamic microfinance modes in Sudan showed a positive environment for credit including devoting 12 percent of the total investment portfolio of each bank to microfinance credit, in addition to introducing guarantee services via the insurance companies, and suitable repayment period with low interest. The empirical results of the Logit regression showed that four variables were statistically significant in affecting the farmers’ decision of joining SGs namely are educational level, machinery ownership, financial ability and the type of land tenure. While the factors of farm location, risk exposure, and animal ownership are not significant. The paired samples (T) test used to examine and estimate the difference between two paired samples means (solidarity group and self-financed), the results showed that there are no significant differences between the means of cost and returns for the two groups, which indicate that the bank finance has no financial burden on the SGs farmers. The study recommends generalization of the solidarity group's finance in the irrigated sector of the Sudan

Use of the analysis of the volatile faecal metabolome in screening for colorectal cancer

Diagnosis of colorectal cancer is an invasive and expensive colonoscopy, which is usually carried out after a positive screening test. Unfortunately, existing screening tests lack specificity and sensitivity, hence many unnecessary colonoscopies are performed. Here we report on a potential new screening test for colorectal cancer based on the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the headspace of faecal samples. Faecal samples were obtained from subjects who had a positive faecal occult blood sample (FOBT). Subjects subsequently had colonoscopies performed to classify them into low risk (non-cancer) and high risk (colorectal cancer) groups. Volatile organic compounds were analysed by selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) and then data were analysed using both univariate and multivariate statistical methods. Ions most likely from hydrogen sulphide, dimethyl sulphide and dimethyl disulphide are statistically significantly higher in samples from high risk rather than low risk subjects. Results using multivariate methods show that the test gives a correct classification of 75% with 78% specificity and 72% sensitivity on FOBT positive samples, offering a potentially effective alternative to FOBT

Preconditioning Shields Against Vascular Events in Surgery (SAVES), a multicentre feasibility trial of preconditioning against adverse events in major vascular surgery: study protocol for a randomised control trial.

Patients undergoing vascular surgery procedures constitute a 'high-risk' group. Fatal and disabling perioperative complications are common. Complications arise via multiple aetiological pathways. This mechanistic redundancy limits techniques to reduce complications that target individual mechanisms, for example, anti-platelet agents. Remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) induces a protective phenotype in at-risk tissue, conferring protection against ischaemia-reperfusion injury regardless of the trigger. RIPC is induced by repeated periods of upper limb ischaemia-reperfusion produced using a blood pressure cuff. RIPC confers some protection against cardiac and renal injury during major vascular surgery in proof-of-concept trials. Similar trials suggest benefit during cardiac surgery. Several uncertainties remain in advance of a full-scale trial to evaluate clinical efficacy. We propose a feasibility trial to fully evaluate arm-induced RIPC's ability to confer protection in major vascular surgery, assess the incidence of a proposed composite primary efficacy endpoint and evaluate the intervention's acceptability to patients and staff

The heartbeat evoked potential does not support strong interoceptive sensibility in trait mindfulness.

The enhancement of body awareness is proposed as one of the cognitive mechanisms that characterize mindfulness. To date, this hypothesis is supported by self-report and behavioral measures but still lacks physiological evidence. The current study investigated relation between trait mindfulness (i.e., individual differences in the ability to be mindful in daily life) and body awareness in combining a self-report measure (Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness [MAIA] questionnaire) with analysis of the heartbeat evoked potential (HEP), which is an event-related potential reflecting the cortical processing of the heartbeat. The HEP data were collected from 17 healthy participants under five minutes of resting-state condition. In addition, each participant completed the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory and the MAIA questionnaire. Taking account of the important variability of HEP effects, analyses were replicated with the same participants three times (in three distinct sessions). First, group-level analyses showed that HEP amplitude and trait mindfulness do not correlate. Secondly, we observed that HEP amplitude could positively correlate with self-reported body awareness; however, this association was unreliable over time. Interestingly, we found that HEP measure shows very poor reliability over time at the individual level, potentially explaining the lack of reliable association between HEP and psychological traits. Lastly, a reliable positive correlation was found between self-reported trait mindfulness and body awareness. Taken together, these findings provide preliminary evidence that the HEP might not support the increased subjective body awareness in trait mindfulness, thus suggesting that perhaps objective and subjective measures of body awareness could be independent. This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Verdonk, C., Trousselard, M., Di Bernardi Luft, C., Medani, T., Billaud, J.-B., Ramdani, C., Canini, F., Claverie, D., Jaumard-Hakoun, A., & Vialatte, F. (2021). The heartbeat evoked potential does not support strong interoceptive sensibility in trait mindfulness. Psychophysiology, 00, 1– 13. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13891, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13891. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions