Who in Europe works beyond the state pension age and under which conditions? Results from SHARE

There is much research about those who exit the labour market prematurely, however, comparatively little is known about people working longer and about their employment and working conditions. In this paper, we describe the employment and working conditions of men and women working between 65 and 80 years, and compare them with previous conditions of those retired in the same age group. Analyses are based on wave 4 data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) with information collected between 2009 and 2011 from 17,625 older men and women across 16 European countries. Besides socio-demographic and health-related factors (physical and mental health), the focus lies on employment conditions (e.g. employment status, occupational position and working hours) and on stressful working conditions, measured in terms of low control at work and effort-reward imbalance. In case of retired people, information on working conditions refer to the last job before retirement. Following descriptive analyses, we then conduct multivariable analyses and investigate how working conditions and poor health are related to labour market participation (i.e. random intercept models accounting for country affiliation and adjusted for potential confounders). Results illustrate that people working between the ages of 65 and 80 are more likely to be self-employed (either with or without employees) and work in advantaged occupational positions. Furthermore, findings reveal that psychosocial working conditions are generally better than the conditions retired respondents had in their last job. Finally, in contrast to those who work, health tends to be worse among retired people. In conclusion, findings deliver empirical evidence that paid employment beyond age 65 is more common among self-employed workers throughout Europe, in advantaged occupations and under-favourable psychosocial circumstances, and that this group of workers are in considerably good mental and physical health. This highlights that policies aimed at increasing the state pension age beyond the age of 65 years put pressure on specific disadvantaged groups of men and women

Isothermal Recombinase Polymerase amplification (RPA) of Schistosoma haematobium DNA and oligochromatographic lateral flow detection

© 2015 Rosser et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. The attached file is the published version of the article

Improving breeding performance of fingerlings of Clarias gariepinus through intraspecific hybridization

The scarcity of genetically improved fish seed is a major constraint to rapid development of aquaculture in Nigeria due to inbreeding. The study was conducted to monitor breeding indices from intra-specific mating combinations of wild stocks of Clarias gariepinus. Broodstock of C. gariepinus were collected from Lokoja (LK), Makurdi (MK), Agenebode (AG) and Onitsha (ON) and compared with domesticated strain. 16 mating combinations of parental and intraspecific mating combinations were conducted in triplicates. Results were subjected to one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (α= 0.05). The results showed collection from Onitsha had highest values of fertilization (95.2%), hatchability (87.6 %) and survival (66.0 %), followed by crosses from female from Onitsha : ♀ON X ♂LK, ♀ON X  ♂MK and ♀ON X  ♂AG having 95.8 %, 91.1 % and 88.8 % (fertilization), 68.7 %, 61.9 % and 60.7 % (hatchability) and 61 %, 57 % and 63 % (survival) respectively. Domesticated strain had least values (81.9 %, 59.4 % and 51 %) fertilization, hatchability and survival respectively. ANOVA (α< 0.05) showed variation in fertilization, hatchability and survival. The better performing strains could be explored for genetic development. However, protein and gene profiling of these natural populations may be necessary to identify the proteins and genes responsible for these variations in breeding performances.Key Words: Breeding, performance, Clarias gariepinus, hybridizatio

Informing investment to reduce inequalities: a modelling approach

Background: Reducing health inequalities is an important policy objective but there is limited quantitative information about the impact of specific interventions. Objectives: To provide estimates of the impact of a range of interventions on health and health inequalities. Materials and methods: Literature reviews were conducted to identify the best evidence linking interventions to mortality and hospital admissions. We examined interventions across the determinants of health: a ‘living wage’; changes to benefits, taxation and employment; active travel; tobacco taxation; smoking cessation, alcohol brief interventions, and weight management services. A model was developed to estimate mortality and years of life lost (YLL) in intervention and comparison populations over a 20-year time period following interventions delivered only in the first year. We estimated changes in inequalities using the relative index of inequality (RII). Results: Introduction of a ‘living wage’ generated the largest beneficial health impact, with modest reductions in health inequalities. Benefits increases had modest positive impacts on health and health inequalities. Income tax increases had negative impacts on population health but reduced inequalities, while council tax increases worsened both health and health inequalities. Active travel increases had minimally positive effects on population health but widened health inequalities. Increases in employment reduced inequalities only when targeted to the most deprived groups. Tobacco taxation had modestly positive impacts on health but little impact on health inequalities. Alcohol brief interventions had modestly positive impacts on health and health inequalities only when strongly socially targeted, while smoking cessation and weight-reduction programmes had minimal impacts on health and health inequalities even when socially targeted. Conclusions: Interventions have markedly different effects on mortality, hospitalisations and inequalities. The most effective (and likely cost-effective) interventions for reducing inequalities were regulatory and tax options. Interventions focused on individual agency were much less likely to impact on inequalities, even when targeted at the most deprived communities

Selection criteria for drought tolerance at the vegetative phase in early maturing maize

Identifying drought tolerant maize (Zea mays L.) at the vegetative stage is a meaningful effort at reducing cost and time of screening large number of maize genotypes for drought tolerance. The primary objectives of this study were to assess the effectiveness of vegetative traits in discriminating between drought tolerant and drought sensitive hybrids and to determine the stage at which the stress should be imposed to achieve maximum difference between hybrids with contrasting responses to drought. A drought tolerant hybrid (TZEI 18 × TZEI 31) and a sensitive hybrid (TZEI 108 × TZEI 87) were evaluated in a pot experiment conducted in a screen house facility and in the field at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in 2011. The experiment was laid out as a randomized complete block design in each of four groups of different water treatments, namely one week of watering for 1, 2, and 3 weeks after planting and withdrawing watering for the rest of the period of experimentation (43 days after planting), along with a treatment involving watering throughout the period of the experiment. Data were collected on root and shoot traits under the four levels of water treatment and the data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and orthogonal contrasts. Results of the ANOVA showed significant mean squares for root length, root fresh weight, shoot length, number of root branches, shoot dry weight, root dry weight and number of shed leaves. Withdrawing water a week or two after planting induced large differences between the drought tolerant and drought sensitive genotypes for root length, root dry weight, number of root branches and number of shed leaves. In conclusion, root length, root fresh weight, shoot length, number of root branches, shoot dry weight, root dry weight and number of shed leaves were the most reliable traits for pre-anthesis drought tolerance. Watering for only one or two weeks after planting was the best treatment for identifying drought tolerant maize genotypes at the vegetative growth stage.Key words: Drought, maize, pre-anthesis, seedling stage

Biplot Analysis of Line × Tester Data of Maize (Zea mays L.) Inbred Lines under Stress and Nonstress Environments

The GGE biplot tool has potential for determining combining ability effects, identifying distinct heterotic groups and efficient testers in a line × tester study. However, its use for such analysis has not been adequately explored. The objectives of this study were to (i) assess combining ability of extra-early maturing lines (80–85 days to physiological maturity) and testers for grain yield (ii) classify lines into heterotic groups and (iii) identify most efficient testers using GGE biplot. Sixty-three lines crossed to four testers were evaluated under Strga-infested, drought and nonstress environments for 2 years in Nigeria. Results of GGE biplot analyses of combining ability and heterotic patterns of yield of lines, grouping and identification of testers were close to those of the conventional line × tester method. Testers TZEEI 13, TZEEI 21 and TZEEI 29 were highly efficient in grouping lines under stress environments while testers TZEEI 21 and TZEEI 29 were best under nonstress environments. The GGE biplot identified tester TZEEI 13, TZEEI 21 and TZEEI 29 as most efficient across stress environments and TZEEI 21 and TZEEI 29 across nonstress environments

Physical losses could partially explain modest carotenoid retention in dried food products from biofortified cassava

Gari, a fermented and dried semolina made from cassava, is one of the most common foods in West Africa. Recently introduced biofortified yellow cassava containing provitamin A carotenoids could help tackle vitamin A deficiency prevalent in those areas. However there are concerns because of the low retention of carotenoids during gari processing compared to other processes (e.g. boiling). The aim of the study was to assess the levels of true retention in trans–β-carotene during gari processing and investigate the causes of low retention. Influence of processing step, processor (3 commercial processors) and variety (TMS 01/ 1371; 01/1368 and 01/1412) were assessed. It was shown that low true retention (46% on average) during gari processing may be explained by not only chemical losses (i.e. due to roasting temperature) but also by physical losses (i.e. due to leaching of carotenoids in discarded liquids): true retention in the liquid lost from grating negatively correlated with true retention retained in the mash (R = -0.914). Moreover, true retention followed the same pattern as lost water at the different processing steps (i.e. for the commercial processors). Variety had a significant influence on true retention, carotenoid content, and trans-cis isomerisation but the processor type had little effect. It is the first time that the importance of physical carotenoid losses was demonstrated during processing of biofortified crops

Assessing the suitability of stress tolerant early-maturing maize (Zea mays) inbred lines for hybrid development using combining ability effects and DArTseq markers

Open Access Article; Published online: 27 Jan 2023Identification of hybrids for commercialization is crucial for sustainable maize production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). One hundred and ninety test crosses, 10 tester × tester crosses + 10 hybrid checks were evaluated across 11 environments, 2017 to 2019. Inheritance of grain yield under Striga infestation, optimal and across environments was influenced by additive genetic action, but there was greater influence of nonadditive gene action under drought stress conditions. Nine, seven and two inbreds had significant and positive general combining ability (GCA) effects for grain yield under Striga-infested, optimal and drought stress environments, respectively, and would contribute high grain yield to their progenies. Heterotic grouping methods based on specific and GCA, GCA effects of multiple traits and DArTseq markers classified the inbreds into five, three and two heterotic groups, respectively, across research conditions. The DArTseq markers method that classified the inbred lines into two major heterotic groups and was one of the most efficient methods should be adopted for practical purposes in maize breeding programmes in SSA. Hybrids TZEI 7 × TZdEI 352, TZEI 1238 × TZEI 7 and TZEI 1252 × TZEI 7 had outstanding grain yield under contrasting environments and should be tested on-farm for commercialization in SSA