Gender, socio-economic status and metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and old adults.

BACKGROUND: Studies that addressed social and economic determinants of cardiovascular diseases, consistently showed an increase prevalence of the individual features of metabolic syndrome in the lower socio-economic strata. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the association between social class and metabolic syndrome in a sample of urban middle-aged and old Portuguese adults. METHODS: We evaluated 1962 subjects (1207 women and 755 men) aged 40 or more years. Marital status, education, occupation, menarche age and height distribution were used as socioeconomic indicators. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the ATP III, by the presence of at least three of the following characteristics: waist circumference > 102 cm in men and > 88 cm in women; triglycerides > or = 150 mg/dl; HDL cholesterol or = 130/85 mm Hg; and fasting glucose > or = 110 mg/dl. Proportions were compared using the chi square test or Fisher's exact test. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were computed using unconditional logistic regression to estimate the magnitude of the associations. RESULTS: Metabolic syndrome was significantly more frequent in females (24.9 vs. 17.4, p < 0.001). In females, the odds favoring metabolic syndrome significantly increased with age and in unfavorable social class as described by occupation, and decreased with education level. In males, metabolic syndrome was significantly more frequent in the 60-69 years age class (OR = 1.82; 95%CI: 1.02-3.26) when compared to those in the 40-49 years age class. Concerning other socioeconomic indicators no significant associations were found. CONCLUSION: This study showed that gender influenced the association of socio-economic status indicators with metabolic syndrome. Females in lower social classes, as defined by education and occupational classification, more frequently presented metabolic syndrome, no such association was found in males

Tropical Plant Responses to Climate Change

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Efeitos de mudanças regulatórias no microcrédito no desempenho nanceiro e social de cooperativas de crédito brasileiras

This study investigates whether the performance of credit unions that offer microcredit in Brazil was affected by the advent of Crescer – the National Microcredit Program. This research fills a gap in the literature because few papers investigate credit unions that work with microcredit and also the effects of governmental interventions related to microcredit operations. Studies of this type may help evaluate the impact of governmental interventions on the performance of the institutions that are directly or indirectly affected. Our results add to the debate about microcredit and about the inclusion of credit unions in this market. In particular, our evidence may influence the design of public policies and the strategies of microfinance institutions, which typically combine economic and social objectives. Based on the literature, we calculate fifteen indicators for each credit union, related to their financial and social performance. The inferences are based on the implementation of the difference in differences estimator using the advent of Crescer, in 2011, as the exogenous event of interest and including in the control group the credit unions that did not provide microcredit loans throughout the sample period. This research presents evidence that the volume of clients and microcredit operations performed by Brazilian credit unions was positively affected by regulatory changes that took place in 2011, consistently with the objectives of the governmental intervention. The evidence also suggests that the governmental intervention did not harm the financial sustainability of the credit unions. The main changes are: a substantial reduction of interest rates and transaction costs, the implementation of subsidies to participants in the program, and a push for public banks to enhance their supply of productive and oriented microcredit.Este estudo investiga se e como o desempenho nanceiro e social das cooperativas que ofertam microcrédito no Brasil foi afetado pelo advento do Crescer – Programa Nacional de Microcrédito. A pesquisa preenche lacuna na literatura da área, uma vez que há poucos estudos sobre cooperativas que trabalham com microcrédito e também sobre os efeitos de intervenções governamentais na área de microcrédito. Pesquisas como esta podem auxiliar na avaliação do impacto de intervenções governamentais sobre o desempenho das instituições direta ou indiretamente afetadas. Os resultados do estudo acrescentam novos elementos ao debate sobre o mercado do microcrédito e sobre a inserção das cooperativas de crédito nesse mercado. Em particular, as evidências aqui discutidas oferecem subsídio para o desenho de políticas públicas e para a de nição de estratégias de instituições de micro nanças, as quais tipicamente combinam objetivos econômicos e sociais. Com base na literatura, foram calculados 15 indicadores para cada cooperativa, relacionados ao seu desempenho nanceiro e social. As inferências baseiam-se na implementação do estimador de diferença em diferenças utilizando o advento do Crescer, em 2011, como o evento exógeno de interesse, e incluindo, no grupo de controle, as cooperativas de crédito que não forneceram empréstimos de microcrédito ao longo do período amostral. A pesquisa apresenta evidências de que o volume de clientes e de operações de microcrédito realizadas pelas cooperativas de crédito brasileiras foi positivamente afetado por mudanças regulatórias ocorridas em 2011, de forma compatível com os objetivos da intervenção governamental. As evidências também sugerem que a intervenção governamental enfocada não comprometeu a sustentabilidade nanceira das cooperativas. As mudanças enfocadas são: redução substancial das taxas de juros e custos de transação, implementação de subsídios aos participantes do programa e impulso para bancos públicos para aumentar sua oferta de microcrédito produtivo e orientado

Diversity of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) landraces in Mozambique: new opportunities for crop improvement and future breeding programs

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is a neglected crop native to Africa, with an outstanding potential to contribute to the major challenges in food and nutrition security, as well as in agricultural sustainability. Two major issues regarding cowpea research have been highlighted in recent years—the establishment of core collections and the characterization of landraces—as crucial to the implementation of environmentally resilient and nutrition-sensitive production systems. In this work, we have collected, mapped, and characterized the morphological attributes of 61 cowpea genotypes, from 10 landraces spanning across six agro-ecological zones and three provinces in Mozambique. Our results reveal that local landraces retain a high level of morphological diversity without a specific geographical pattern, suggesting the existence of gene flow. Nevertheless, accessions from one landrace, i.e., Maringué, seem to be the most promising in terms of yield and nutrition-related parameters, and could therefore be integrated into the ongoing conservation and breeding efforts in the region towards the production of elite varieties of cowpeainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio