•Food securing upgrading strategies (UPS) in Tanzania were assessed by scientists.•Assessments of social, ecological and economic impacts differed between the genders.•Female scientists were more ...careful in giving assessments.•Male scientists rated economic and social impacts of UPS higher.•Both female and male awareness need to be integrated in UPS development.
Perception of the social, ecological and economic aspects of food security differs depending on the gender of the evaluating expert. Understanding these differences is key to developing upgrading strategies (UPS) that can help stabilise and enhance food security. This is highly relevant for research on food value chains (FVCs) in sub-Saharan Africa, where subsistence farmers are highly exposed to food insecurity. Prior to their implementation, however, the potential social, ecological and economic impacts of UPS in the target areas should be carefully assessed.
This article reports on gender-based differences in perception and evaluates these differences using ex-ante impact assessments on the social, ecological, and economic aspects of food security and 13 UPS in the Tanzanian FVC that were carried out by agricultural scientists. The work is embedded in a larger multi-disciplinary research project. We find that impact assessments differed based on the gender of experts to various extents and depended on the types of criteria assessed. Female scientists were more careful during assessment, limiting themselves more strictly to the UPS and to criteria they were most knowledgeable in. Additionally, female respondents perceived the impacts of UPS on the economic and social sustainability of food security to be lower compared to their male colleagues. We therefore conclude that perceptions of female and male agricultural experts in strategy selection and implementation should be differentiated based on their gender. This may help reduce gender-specific challenges faced by African farmers.
Purpose
Varus or valgus deformities in knee osteoarthritis may have a crucial impact on ankle subtalar range of motion (ROM) and ligamentous stability. The purpose of this study was to assess whether ...the grade of ankle eversion and inversion rotation stability was influenced by frontal deformities of the knee joint.
Methods
Patients who were planned to undergo total knee arthroplasty (TKA) were prospectively included in this study. Patients were examined radiologically (mechanical tibiofemoral angle (mTFA), hindfoot alignment view angle (HAVA), anterior distal tibia angle (ADTA)) and clinically (ROM of the knee and ankle joint, foot function index, knee osteoarthritis outcome score). Ankle stability was assessed using an ankle arthrometer (AA) to test inversion/eversion (ie) rotation and anterior/posterior (ap) displacement stability of the ankle joint. Correlations were calculated using Pearson’s coefficient, and differences between two independent groups of nonparametric data were calculated using a two-sided Wilcoxon signed rank test.
Results
Eighty-two (varus
n =
52, valgus
n =
30) patients were included. The preoperative mTFA significantly correlated with the HAVA (Pearson’s correlation
=
− 0.72,
p <
0.001). Laxity testing of the ankle demonstrated that in both varus and valgus knee osteoarthritis, higher grades of mTFA did not correlate with the inversion or eversion capacity of the ankle joint. The ADTA significantly correlated with the posterior displacement of the ankle joint (cor = 0.24,
p =
0.049).
Conclusions
This study could not confirm that higher degrees of frontal knee deformities in osteoarthritis were associated with increasing grades of ligamentous ankle instabilities or a reduced ROM of the subtalar joint.
Level of evidence
II.
Background
Coronal alignment of the tibial component determines functional outcome and survival in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Innovative techniques for tibial instrumentation have been developed ...to improve accuracy and reduce the rate of outliers.
Methods
In a prospective study, 300 patients were allocated to four different groups using a randomization process (two innovative and two conventional) techniques of tibial instrumentation (conventional: extramedullary, intramedullary; innovative: navigation and patient-specific instrumentation (PSI);
n
= 75 for each group). The aims were to reconstruct the medial proximal tibial angle (MPTA) to 90° and the mechanical tibio-femoral axis (mTFA) to 0°. Both angles were evaluated and compared between all groups three months after the surgery. Patients who presented with a postoperative mTFA > 3° were classified as outliers.
Results
The navigation and intramedullary technique both demonstrated that they were significantly more precise in reconstructing a neutral mTFA and MPTA compared to the other two techniques. The odd’s ratio (OR) for producing outliers was highest for the PSI method (PSI OR = 5.5,
p
< 0.05; extramedullary positioning OR = 3.7,
p
> 0.05; intramedullary positioning OR = 1.7,
p
> 0.05; navigation OR = 0.04,
p
< 0.05). We could only observe significant differences between pre- and postoperative MPTA in the navigation and intramedullary group. The MPTA showed a significant negative correlation with the mTFA in all groups preoperatively and in the extramedullary, intramedullary and PSI postoperatively.
Conclusion
The navigation and intramedullary instrumentation provided the precise positioning of the tibial component. Outliers were most common within the PSI and extramedullary technique. Optimal alignment is dependent on the technique of tibial instrumentation and tibial component positioning determines the accuracy in TKA since mTFA correlated with MPTA pre- and postoperatively.
In Tanzania, a majority of rural residents cook using firewood-based three-stone-fire stoves. In this study, quantitative performance differences between technologically advanced improved cooking ...stoves and three-stone-fire stoves are analysed. We test the performance of improved cooking stoves and three-stone-fire stoves using local cooks, foods, and fuels, in the semi-arid region of Dodoma in Tanzania. We used the cooking protocol of the Controlled Cooking Test following a two-pot test design. The findings of the study suggest that improved cooking stoves use less firewood and less time than three-stone-fire stoves to conduct a predefined cooking task. In total, 40 households were assessed and ask to complete two different cooking tasks: (1) a fast cooking meal (rice and vegetables) and (2) a slow cooking meal (beans and rice). For cooking task 1, the results show a significant reduction in firewood consumption of 37.1% by improved cooking stoves compared to traditional three-stone-fire stoves; for cooking task 2 a reduction of 15.6% is found. In addition, it was found that the time needed to conduct cooking tasks 1 and 2 was significantly reduced by 26.8% and 22.8% respectively, when improved cooking stoves were used instead of three-stone-fire-stoves. We observed that the villagers altered the initial improved cooking stove design, resulting in the so-called modified improved cooking stove. In an additional Controlled Cooking Test, we conducted cooking task 3: a very fast cooking meal (maize flour and vegetables) within 32 households. Significant changes between the initial and modified improved cooking stoves regarding firewood and time consumption were not detected. However, analyses show that both firewood and time consumption during cooking was reduced when large amounts (for 6-7 household members) of food were prepared instead of small amounts (for 2-3 household members).
Enhancing food security is one of the main goals of subsistence farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study investigates the implementation of improved loam-made cooking stoves and its contribution to ...coping and livelihood strategies. Controlled combustion, air as well as smoke flue, and heat insulation facilitate the more efficient fuel consumption of improved cooking stoves compared to traditional stoves-namely three stone fires. Although the majority of small-scale farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa rely on the free public good of firewood, the increasing time needed for collecting firewood implies high opportunity costs for productive members of the family. The primary outcomes for users of improved stoves are reduced fuel consumption, greater safety, saved time, and reduced smoke in the kitchen. The paper illustrates part of the output, outcome, and impact of a participatory action research approach for implementing improved cooking stoves. Special emphasis was put on enabling the villagers to construct their stoves without external support, hence having locally manufactured stoves made of mud, bricks, and dried grass. The impact pathway of improved cooking stoves followed the training-of-trainers concept, where members of the initially established farmer groups were trained to construct stoves on their own. Special focus was given to knowledge exchange and knowledge transfer in order to increase firewood efficiency and overall satisfaction of users of improved cook stoves. Encouraging the members to further adapt the stoves enabled them to scale-up the construction of improved cooked stoves into a business model and increase dissemination while creating income. Although many important benefits, like time and knowledge gain, were identified by the farmers after adoption of the new technology, we found adoption rates differed significantly between regions.
Genetically modified herbicide-tolerant oilseed rape or canola (
Brassica napus
L.) is at the forefront of being introduced into European agriculture. Concerns have been raised about how genetically ...modified oilseed rape cultivation and the modified cropping practices might impair the agro-environment. The present review compiles and categorises evidenced and potential agro-environmental effects of cultivating genetically modified oilseed rape and assesses the data quality of published references. Cropping practice changes were identified for (a) the introduction of genetically modified oilseed rape cultivation per se, (b) time, mode and rate of herbicide application, and spraying frequencies, (c) soil tillage and cover crops, (d) crop rotations and (e) coexistence measures to avoid mixing of genetically modified and non-genetically modified cultivation systems. Agro-environmental effects identified are directly linked to the herbicide tolerance technology and may impact ecological processes on various scales. The herbicide-tolerant oilseed rape biology, genotype and co-existence constraints with neighbouring agricultural systems also entail various agro-environmental effects. The potential and especially the well-evidenced adverse effects on the agroenvironment, according to European legislation, require a systematic monitoring of genetically modified oilseed rape. The most evidenced adverse effects to be monitored are persistence and/or spread of feral herbicide-tolerant oilseed rape and volunteers, transfer of herbicide tolerance to wild relatives and decline in agrobiodiversity, and development of herbicide tolerance in weeds, as well as adverse effects on field organisms and/or soil bio-geochemical cycles. Other well-evidenced potential adverse effects include reduced crop rotation options, increased late-season herbicide drift and pollution, and implications for microbial and faunal activities due to altered agrochemical profiles, as well as implications of feral herbicide-tolerant oilseed rape on neighbouring habitats.
Low, erratic rainfall amounts and restricted accessibility of chemical fertilizer for rural farmers in developing countries may have negative effects on crop production. Agricultural methods like ...biochar applications, fertilizer microdosing and tied ridging can help to mitigate these constraints, but have rarely been studied in combination and under varying water availability. A field trial was conducted in split-plot design over two contrasting cropping seasons in 2016 and 2017 in Tanzania to study the effect of these agricultural methods on maize grain yield, biomass, leaf area index, plant height and soil moisture content. In both seasons each with contrasting irrigation frequencies, fertilizer microdosing increased the grain yield of maize. Biochar alone affected the yield only at high application rates (10 t/ha) and low irrigation frequency. However, when combined with fertilizer microdosing the yield effect of biochar was more pronounced. For example, combining 5 t/ha biochar with fertilizer microdosing under flat tillage increased yield by 170% compared to the control without biochar and fertilizers. Tied ridges increased soil moisture content and tended to increase maize yield compared to flat tillage, whereas biochar application resulted in significantly higher soil moisture contents. Fertilizer microdosing with biochar application can be recommended to improve maize yields mainly under flat tillage.
Participatory action research across food value chains (FVC) can help stabilise the food security of subsistence farmers by implementing upgrading strategies (UPS). These strategies can be assessed ...ex-ante and ex-post for their potential social, ecological and economic sustainability impacts.
UPS implementation, however, often entails gender-specific changes and challenges in a farmer's social life, economy and environment that either were not perceived and anticipated beforehand or are not followed up during UPS implementation. Before and during their implementation, therefore, UPS need to be entirely understood and assessed by both genders in terms of their potential social, ecological and economic sustainability impacts.
This article conceptualises a systematic framework for integrating gender in sustainability impact assessments and presents gender-based assessment differences in three low-input UPS in Tanzanian FVC. We conducted ex-ante and ex-post impact assessments using nine food security criteria developed earlier by the authors following the Framework of Participatory Impact Assessment (FoPIA). Sustainability impact assessments—to a greater extent than expected—differed to various extents between the genders for a) different food security criteria, b) different sustainability dimensions (economic, social, and environmental), c) different points in time (T0, T1) of assessments, d) different implemented UPS, and e) different members within the groups of female and/or male stakeholders.
The results demonstrate the substantial importance of integrating female-male segregated assessments and perceptions before and while implementing food-securing UPS. We anticipate that integrating these assessments and perceptions as regular components will lead to better gendered social learning for both scientists and stakeholders and a holistic understanding of complex local food systems.
•A gender-focussed analytical framework for food security impact assessments is presented.•Assessments of social, ecological and economic impacts differed between the sexes.•Ex-ante and ex-post assessments differed between the sexes.•Both female and male farmers need to be integrated during UPS development.•The framework promotes gendered social learning by both scientists and stakeholders.
Objectives: In edentulous patients, implant‐supported overdentures can improve chewing efficiency and patient satisfaction, and even a positive impact on bone tissue preservation has been observed. ...The objective of this long‐term study was to investigate whether kinesiographic and electromyographic (EMG) parameters would also benefit from implant placement and whether the status achieved would remain consistent over time.
Material and methods: The functional adaptability of the neuromuscular system in edentulous patients has been recorded in four different states of restoration: (1) insufficient old dentures, (2) new complete dentures, (3) implant‐supported overdentures, and (4) implant‐supported overdentures 10 years in use. In each state of restoration, the neuromuscular adaptation was assessed during masticatory activity on the basis of myodynamic parameters such as vertical opening, frontal extension and closing velocity. EMG parameters, i.e. Musculus masseter and Musculus temporalis activities were recorded simultaneously.
Results: The results revealed a general increase in the myodynamic and EMG‐parameters. All of them clearly approached the values for normal dentate subjects and maintained this level over a period of 10 years. The significant changes between states 2 and 3 indicate that implant stabilization of dentures is accompanied by an immediate increase of the neuromuscular parameters.
Conclusions: In elderly edentulous patients, the treatment with two interforaminal implants provides evidence of neuromuscular adaptation towards values of healthy dentate. Thus, the known benefits of implant placement such as tissue perseverance and improved function are complemented by improved neuromuscular adaptation.
Subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa aim for strategies to enhance their food security. Implementing upgrading strategies (UPS) must be assessed prior to and during implementation. The objective ...of this paper was to analyze and compare ex-ante and mid-term assessments of two food-securing UPS (rainwater harvesting and micro fertilization, improved cooking stoves) conducted with local stakeholders from four rural villages in Tanzania. We utilized locally developed food security criteria developed under the Framework of Participatory Impact Assessment (FoPIA). Focus group discussions were used to anticipate (ex-ante) and reflect (mid-term evaluation) the likely effects of selected UPS. Overall, the stakeholders’ assessment scores declined from the ex-ante to the mid-term assessment; in particular, the economic criteria decreased, followed by the social criteria. Four critical factors were identified: 1) rainfall-related problems; 2) workload; 3) managerial performance; and 4) social conflicts. Assessment differences were found within the villages, between regions and across villages. Combining both the assessment scores and the farmers’ explanations during assessments provides the key to optimizing the food-securing potential of UPS.
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