Supporting women farmers in a changing climate: five policy lessons

Policies, institutions and services to help farmers develop new approaches to deal with climate change will need to produce results for women farmers as well as men. This brief provides five policy lessons to support this process, based on evidence from research in low- and middle- income countries and offers guidelines for crafting gender-responsive climate policies at global and national levels. This research was presented in March 2015 at a seminar in Paris on ‘Closing the gender gap in farming under climate change’, co-organized by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and Future Earth

Mean Subjective visual vertical measure.

<p>Mean values of the SVV for the three different conditions (OKN+SVV at 40°/s toward the left and the right and the condition No OKN+SVV) for the two groups of children tested. Verticals bars indicate the standard error.</p

Clinical characteristics of children tested.

<p>Mean and minimum and maximum values (in square brackets) of the birth weight (in gr), gestational age (in weeks), the number of boys and girls, the walking age (in months), the number of preterm children with normal MRI at 40 corrected GA and the age at assessment. p values are also shown for significant difference between the two groups of children.</p><p>Clinical characteristics of children tested.</p

Clinical test and MRI results in preterm children.

<p>Brunet Lezine’s test results: developmental quotient (DQ) for postural capability, oculomotor coordination, language and social capabilities; the global quotient is also reported. The bold values are abnormal. Writing hand left (L) or right (R) tested the day of experiment. ND test not done. Magnetic resonance imaging MRI: normal (0); abnormal (1).</p><p>Clinical test and MRI results in preterm children.</p

Postural parameters for the different conditions.

<p>Mean of Surface of the CoP (A), of length of CoP in the medio-lateral axis (B), and of mean speed of CoP (C) for the five different conditions (OKN+SVV: 40°/s left and 40°/s right, respectively, No OKN+SVV, DARK+FIX and DARK+EC) for the two groups of children tested. Verticals bars indicate the standard error. Asterisks indicate that the value is significantly different at the post-hoc test (p < 0.05).</p

Mean surface area of the CoP for the preterm born children with abnormal and normal MRI results.

<p>Mean of Surface of the CoP and the standard error for the five different conditions (OKN+SVV: 40°/s left and 40°/s right, respectively, No OKN+SVV, DARK+FIX and DARK+EC) for the two groups of preterm born children tested with abnormal (10 children) and normal (9 children) MRI results.</p><p>Mean surface area of the CoP for the preterm born children with abnormal and normal MRI results.</p

Ischemic Postconditioning Fails to Protect against Neonatal Cerebral Stroke

<div><p>The lack of efficient neuroprotective strategies for neonatal stroke could be ascribed to pathogenic ischemic processes differentiating adults and neonates. We explored this hypothesis using a rat model of neonatal ischemia induced by permanent occlusion of the left distal middle cerebral artery combined with 50 min of occlusion of both common carotid arteries (CCA). Postconditioning was performed by repetitive brief release and occlusion (30 s, 1 and/or 5 min) of CCA after 50 min of CCA occlusion. Alternative reperfusion was generated by controlled release of the bilateral CCA occlusion. Blood-flow velocities in the left internal carotid artery were measured using color-coded pulsed Doppler ultrasound imaging. Cortical perfusion was measured using laser Doppler. Cerebrovascular vasoreactivity was evaluated after inhalation with the hypercapnic gas or inhaled nitric oxide (NO). Whatever the type of serial mechanical interruptions of blood flow at reperfusion, postconditioning did not reduce infarct volume after 72 hours. A gradual perfusion was found during early re-flow both in the left internal carotid artery and in the cortical penumbra. The absence of acute hyperemia during early CCA re-flow, and the lack of NO-dependent vasoreactivity in P7 rat brain could in part explain the inefficiency of ischemic postconditioning after ischemia-reperfusion.</p> </div

Postconditioning did not reduce infarct size. Infarct size was measured 3 days after ischemia.

<p><b>A</b>: Infarct size measured in animals subjected to postconditioning with 3 cycles of occlusion/reperfusion of 1 and 5 min on both CCA. <b>B</b>: Infarct size measured in animals subjected to postconditioning with 3 cycles of occlusion/reperfusion of 30 s on the left CCA. <b>C</b>: Infarct size measured in animals subjected to alternative reperfusion. The median (horizontal bar) and the mean (cross) were indicated. No significant difference was detected in the different groups.</p

Protocols for cerebral ischemia without and with postconditioning.

<p>Animals were divided into three groups. All animals were subjected to MCA electrocoagulation, and bilateral CCA were transiently (50 min) occluded 2 min later. Re-flow was initiated by CCA occlusion release in controls (n = 17 in the first set, n = 11 in the second set and n = 11 in the third set of experiments). Postconditioning with 3 cycles (occlusion/reperfusion) of 30 s (n = 11), 1 (n = 18) or 5 (n = 12) min was performed on both or only left CCA within 15 s after the initial CCA reperfusion. Alternative reperfusion was initiated by first occlusion release of the left (L/R, n = 11) or of the right (R/L, n = 12) CCA followed by occlusion release of the other CCA.</p

Laser Doppler monitoring during reperfusion.

<p><b>A</b>: Representative brain from a pup killed at 48 hours after ischemia showing a pale delineated lesion (white dotted line) and 3 regions of interest (ROI), and representative cresyl violet-stained section showing a cortical infarct and 2 ROI for rCBF measurements in the penumbra with the laser probe. <b>B</b>: Changes in rCBF (mean of 3 ROI ± S.D) in 6 animals subjected to ischemia-reperfusion. Upon MCA occlusion, the rCBF dropped to 55±8% of baseline, and additional bilateral CCA occlusion further decreased rCBF to 18±5%. After CCA release, a gradual reperfusion was observed from 30±11% at 1 min to 44±9% 20 min after. *p<0.05, ** p<0.01 <i>vs</i> basal.</p