Socioeconomic profiles, production and resource use patterns in selected semi-arid Indian watershed villages

The collaborative watershed research and development project between ICRISAT and the Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Programme (APRLP) was initiated with an overall objective of alleviating poverty through watershed-based interventions that enhance agricultural productivity and the sustainability of rural livelihoods. The initial phase of the project focused on participatory technology evaluation in selected watersheds for development of best practices and upscalable implementation models. Characterization of the biophysical and socioeconomic systems is an important aspect of this work. A detailed baseline socioeconomic farm household survey was conducted in 2003 in selected watershed villages of Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Kurnool districts. This report analyzes the socioeconomic conditions and resource endowment patterns of the watershed farmers. The report provides a snapshot of the structure of production in the villages, constraints and potential for increased productivity, social and political networks, and the distribution of assets across social groups. The net household incomes from diverse sources including crop, livestock and off-farm and their contribution to total household income in the selected villages are presented. The report also analyzes the income inequalities and the effect of different income sources on household income inequalities in the watershed villages using inequality decomposition techniques

Toward a theory of repeat purchase drivers for consumer services

The marketing discipline’s knowledge about the drivers of service customers’ repeat purchase behavior is highly fragmented. This research attempts to overcome that fragmented state of knowledge by making major advances toward a theory of repeat purchase drivers for consumer services. Drawing on means–end theory, the authors develop a hierarchical classification scheme that organizes repeat purchase drivers into an integrative and comprehensive framework. They then identify drivers on the basis of 188 face-to-face laddering interviews in two countries (USA and Germany) and assess the drivers’ importance and interrelations through a national probability sample survey of 618 service customers. In addition to presenting an exhaustive and coherent set of hierarchical repeat-purchase drivers, the authors provide theoretical explanations for how and why drivers relate to one another and to repeat purchase behavior. This research also tests the boundary conditions of the proposed framework by accounting for different service types. In addition to its theoretical contribution, the framework provides companies with specific information about how to manage long-term customer relationships successfully

Combined Inactivation of MYC and K-Ras Oncogenes Reverses Tumorigenesis in Lung Adenocarcinomas and Lymphomas

Conditional transgenic models have established that tumors require sustained oncogene activation for tumor maintenance, exhibiting the phenomenon known as "oncogene-addiction." However, most cancers are caused by multiple genetic events making it difficult to determine which oncogenes or combination of oncogenes will be the most effective targets for their treatment.To examine how the MYC and K-ras(G12D) oncogenes cooperate for the initiation and maintenance of tumorigenesis, we generated double conditional transgenic tumor models of lung adenocarcinoma and lymphoma. The ability of MYC and K-ras(G12D) to cooperate for tumorigenesis and the ability of the inactivation of these oncogenes to result in tumor regression depended upon the specific tissue context. MYC-, K-ras(G12D)- or MYC/K-ras(G12D)-induced lymphomas exhibited sustained regression upon the inactivation of either or both oncogenes. However, in marked contrast, MYC-induced lung tumors failed to regress completely upon oncogene inactivation; whereas K-ras(G12D)-induced lung tumors regressed completely. Importantly, the combined inactivation of both MYC and K-ras(G12D) resulted more frequently in complete lung tumor regression. To account for the different roles of MYC and K-ras(G12D) in maintenance of lung tumors, we found that the down-stream mediators of K-ras(G12D) signaling, Stat3 and Stat5, are dephosphorylated following conditional K-ras(G12D) but not MYC inactivation. In contrast, Stat3 becomes dephosphorylated in lymphoma cells upon inactivation of MYC and/or K-ras(G12D). Interestingly, MYC-induced lung tumors that failed to regress upon MYC inactivation were found to have persistent Stat3 and Stat5 phosphorylation.Taken together, our findings point to the importance of the K-Ras and associated down-stream Stat effector pathways in the initiation and maintenance of lymphomas and lung tumors. We suggest that combined targeting of oncogenic pathways is more likely to be effective in the treatment of lung cancers and lymphomas