Does the group leader matter? The impact of monitoring activities and social ties of group leaders on the repayment performance of groupbased lending Eritrea

This paper analyzes whether the effects of monitoring and social ties of the group leader and other group members on repayment performance of groups differ, using data from an extensive questionnaire held in Eritrea among participants of 102 groups. We hypothesize that the monitoring activities and social ties of the group leader have a stronger positive impact on the repayment performance of groups. The results show that social ties of the group leader do have a positive effect on repayment performance of groups, whereas this is not true for social ties of other group members. We do not find evidence for the hypothesis that monitoring activities of the group leader have a stronger positive impact on group repayment performance. All variables measuring monitoring activities, either of the group leader or the other group members, are found to be statistically insignificant.

Differentiating Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome from recurrent optic neuritis: a case report and review of the literature concerning Hispanic patients

Abstract Background First recognized at the beginning of twentieth century and named after three authors who independently described some affected patients, Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome is a rare multisystemic autoimmune disease targeting melanin-containing tissues of the eye, meninges, inner ear and skin. It predominantly affects Asian people, but also people with darker skin pigmentation such as Native Americans and Hispanics (Mestizos), whose ancestors moved from Asia across the Bering strait to North America and further down to Central and South America. Heterogenous presentation is observed, especially among different ethnic groups. Here we describe the case of an Hispanic South American patient presenting with multiple visual relapses and thus mimicking recurrent optic neuritis; we provide insights into the differential diagnosis and a brief review of the literature concerning the epidemiology of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome in Hispanic patients compared with other ethnic groups. Case presentation A 34-year-old Ecuadorian woman presented over years with multiple relapses involving the visual system. She was investigated in both neurologic and ophthalmic clinical settings. Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging, cerebrospinal fluid examination, Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography and Fluorescein Angiography were performed. She was misdiagnosed first as an optic neuritis pointing to a demyelinating disorder, then as a posterior scleritis. Due to the protean manifestations of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome and the incomplete clinical presentation at the beginning, the right diagnosis was made only at a later disease stage using retrospective criteria. Conclusions Hispanic patients often present without extraocular symptoms in early phases of the disease and they have globally lower rates of intertegumentary signs compared to Asian patients. The diagnosis of a multisystemic disease such as Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome is a challenge involving specialists operating in different medical fields; especially in urban multiethnic populations, rare etiologies of common symptoms have to be taken into account when performing a differential diagnosis

Efficacy and safety of dasatinib vs. Imatinib in Latin american subpopulation from the dasision trial in patients with newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in chronic phase (CP)

sem informação100120th Congress of European-Hematology-Associationsem informaçã

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for fatigue in multiple sclerosis

BACKGROUND: The debilitating fatigue that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) commonly experience during day-to-day living activities responds poorly to current therapeutic options. Direct currents (DC) delivered through the scalp (transcranial DC stimulation or tDCS) at weak intensities induce changes in motor cortical excitability that persist for almost an hour after current offset and depend on current polarity. tDCS successfully modulates cortical excitability in various clinical disorders but no information is available for MS related fatigue. OBJECTIVE: In this study we aimed to assess fatigue symptom after five consecutive sessions of anodal tDCS applied over the motor cortex in patients with MS. METHODS: We enrolled 25 patients with MS all of whom experienced fatigue. We delivered anodal and sham tDCS in random order in two separate experimental sessions at least 1 month apart. The stimulating current was delivered for 15 minutes once a day for 5 consecutive days. In each session the Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS) and the Back Depression Inventory (BDI) were administered before the treatment (baseline), immediately after treatment on day five (T1), one week (T2) and three weeks (T3) after the last tDCS session. RESULTS: All patients tolerated tDCS well without adverse events. The fatigue score significantly decreased after anodal tDCS in 65% of the patients (responders). After patients received tDCS for 5 days their FIS scores improved by about 30% and the tDCS-induced benefits persisted at T2 and T3. CONCLUSION: Our preliminary findings suggest that anodal tDCS applied over the motor cortex, could improve fatigue in most patients with MS. \ua9 2014-IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved

Grassroots Agency: Participation and Conflict in Buenos Aires Shantytowns seen through the Pilot Plan for Villa 7 (1971–1975)

open access articleIn 1971, after more than a decade of national and municipal policies aimed at the top-down removal of shantytowns, the Buenos Aires City Council approved the Plan Piloto para la Relocalización de Villa 7 (Pilot Plan for the Relocation of Shantytown 7; 1971–1975, referred to as the Pilot Plan hereinafter). This particular plan, which resulted in the construction of the housing complex, Barrio Justo Suárez, endures in the collective memory of Argentines as a landmark project regarding grassroots participation in state housing initiatives addressed at shantytowns. Emerging from a context of a housing shortage for the growing urban poor and intense popular mobilizations during the transition to democracy, the authors of the Pilot Plan sought to empower shantytown residents in novel ways by: 1) maintaining the shantytown’s location as opposed to eradication schemes that relocated the residents elsewhere, 2) formally employing some of the residents for the stage of construction, as opposed to “self-help” housing projects in which the residents contributed with unpaid labor, and 3) including them in the urban and architectural design of the of the new housing. This paper will examine the context in which the Pilot Plan was conceived of as a way of re-assessing the roles of the state, the user, and housing-related professionals, often seen as antagonistic. The paper argues that residents’ fair participation and state intervention in housing schemes are not necessarily incompatible, and can function in specific social and political contexts through multiactor proposals backed by a political will that prioritizes grassroots agency

CSF β-amyloid predicts prognosis in patients with multiple sclerosis

Background: The importance of predicting disease progression in multiple sclerosis (MS) has increasingly been recognised, hence reliable biomarkers are needed. Objectives: To investigate the prognostic role of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Amyloid beta1-42 (A) levels by the determination of a cut-off value to classify patients in slow and fast progressors. To evaluate possible association with white (WM) and grey matter (GM) damage at early disease stages. Methods: Sixty patients were recruited and followed-up for three to five years. Patients underwent clinical assessment, CSF analysis to determine Aβ levels, and brain MRI (at baseline and after 1 year). T1-weighted volumes were calculated. T2-weighted scans were used to quantify WM lesion loads. Results: Lower CSF Aβ levels were observed in patients with a worse follow-up EDSS (r=−0.65, p0.05). Conclusions: Low CSF Aβ levels may represent a predictive biomarker of disease progression in MS