The theory of the investment development path and agriculture in Eastern Europe.

The outdated investment development path results in Eastern Europe and the lack of focus on the agricultural sector necessitated this study. The generalised least squares estimator employed countries from 1993 to 2021 for agricultural sector data on 17 Eastern Europe. Eastern European agriculture is in the early phase of stage IV of the investment development path, consistent with the theory of the investment development path. Human capital enhanced net foreign direct investment. Agricultural trade openness, exchange rate, and inflation did not influence net foreign direct investment. Developed and transition countries in Eastern Europe were not distinguished regarding net foreign direct investment. Eastern European countries must increase agricultural growth relative to population growth. This would increase agricultural development. The increased income can be saved and channelled into domestic investments to spur additional growth. This would make capital available for export. The growth in human capital must be sustained to enhance technical know-how in agriculture that would accompany agricultural capital export. Agricultural sector managers of Eastern European countries must focus on enhancing the sector's supervisory and regulatory functions. The goal should be to reduce the costs of doing agricultural business through effective facilitation towards efficient agricultural markets.

Addressing Unmet Surgical Needs in an Underserved Nigerian Community: Report of a 'Town and Gown' Initiative.

BACKGROUND: Access to quality and timely care prevents unnecessary deaths and morbidity from potentially curable surgical diseases. This study describes the magnitude of unmet surgical needs in a Nigerian community and describes the experiences garnered during a surgical outreach organized by a tertiary institution in an underserved community. METHODS: This is a descriptive study highlighting details of a surgical outreach to a community in south-Western part of Nigeria. The project was based on a collaboration between a University Teaching Hospital (gown) and the community (town). Details of the patients' demographic and disease characteristics as well as barriers to seeking medical care were obtained. The operational workflow, treatment offered, and outcomes are highlighted. Results are presented as descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Over a two-day period, 83 out of 3,056 patients who were screened had surgically treatable conditions (2.7%), predominantly hernias (37, 46.6%), goitres (13, 15.7%) and soft tissue swellings (9, 10.8%). The majority were adults (56, 67.5%) while 27 (32.5%) were in the paediatric age group. The mean duration of symptoms was 8.64 months ± 9.5 months. About half of the patients (46.9%) had never visited a medical facility on account of their index illnesses. Lack of funds was cited by many patients as the main reason for having not presented at a hospital. Sixty-three surgical operations were performed with no peri-operative adverse events. CONCLUSION: Lack of financial access was the major barrier to surgical care in the sampled community. Moving from 'gown to town' helped address a significant proportion of the unmet needs over a relatively short period. Tertiary hospitals can provide surgical oversight to communities within their jurisdiction using this approach.

CONTEXTE: L'accès à des soins de qualité et en temps opportun permet d'éiter les décès et la morbidité inutiles dus à des maladies chirurgicales potentiellement curables. Cette étude décrit l'ampleur des besoins chirurgicaux non satisfaits dans une communauté nigériane et décrit les expériences recueillies au cours d'une action chirurgicale organisée par une institution tertiaire dans une communauté mal desservie. MÉTHODES: Il s'agit d'une étude descriptive mettant en évidence les détails d'une action chirurgicale dans une communauté du sud-ouest du Nigeria. Le projet était basé sur une collaboration entre un hôpital universitaire (ville) et la communauté (ville). Les détails des caractéristiques démographiques et pathologiques des patients ainsi que les obstacles à la recherche de soins médicaux ont été obtenus. Le déroulement des opérations, le traitement proposé et les résultats sont mis en évidence. Les résultats sont présentés sous forme de statistiques descriptives. RÉSULTATS: Sur une période de deux jours, 83 des 3056 patients examinés présentaient des affections pouvant être traitées chirurgicalement (2,7 %), principalement des hernies (37, 46,6 %), des goitres (13, 15,7 %) et des tuméfactions des tissus mous (9, 10,8 %). La majorité des patients étaient des adultes (56, 67,5 %), tandis que 27 (32,5 %) appartenaient au groupe d'âge pédiatrique. La durée moyenne des symptômes était de 8,64 mois ±9,5 mois. Environ la moitié des patients (46,9 %) ne s'étaient jamais rendus dans un établissement médical en raison de leurs maladies index. Le manque de moyens financiers a été cité par de nombreux patients comme la principale raison pour laquelle ils ne s'étaient pas présentés à l'hôpital. Soixante-trois opérations chirurgicales ont été réalisées sans aucun événement indésirable périopératoire. CONCLUSION: Le manque d'accès financier était le principal obstacle aux soins chirurgicaux dans la communauté échantillonnée. Le passage de la ville à l'hôpital a permis de répondre à une proportion importante des besoins non satisfaits sur une période relativement courte. Les hôpitaux tertiaires peuvent fournir une supervision chirurgicale aux communautés de leur juridiction en utilisant cette approche. Mots clés: Chirurgie, Besoins non satisfaits, Nigeria, Communauté mal desservie.

The Investment development path theory: Evidence from developing countries' agricultural sector.

Background: We examined the investment development path (IDP) through the perspective of developing countries' agricultural sector. Our analytical approach indirectly accounts for interactions among countries regarding cross-border resource transfers. Aside from providing knowledge on testing the IDP by inferential statistics, the information would be relevant for policymaking. Identifying the stage(s) in the IDP not only highlights the global appeal of agriculture but also guides firms seeking to expand beyond borders. This information is essential for developing an effective economic strategy. Methods: We employed data from 1991 to 2021 for 55 countries from the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT) and applied a fixed effects estimator corrected for serial correlation and non-constant variances. Results and conclusions: We found that agriculture in developing countries is currently in stages I and II of the IDP. Broadly, agricultural production requires policies that would increase outward foreign direct investment and inward foreign direct investment. Domestic agricultural businesses in developing countries must develop capacity by learning from foreign multinationals. This would enable agricultural businesses to invest abroad. Such a move would lead to an increase in outward FDI. As this would have resulted from increased GDP per capita, it will lead to movement from the existing stage to higher ones.

What drives citations of frontier application publications?

A large body of literature exists on analysis of citation and reviews of application of efficiency frontier. However, the reviews that assessed the determinants of citation counts did not focus on frontier applications. We contribute to the literature by identifying the drivers of citations of frontier application publications on Ghana. We employed two-part mixture modelling with inverse hyperbolic sine (IHS) transformation of the second part, which was found to be more appropriate than single equation IHS transformation modelling, for our data. Use of stochastic frontier analysis or data envelopment analysis did not drive citations counts. However, quality of journals in which frontier application studies were published and accessibility of the journals to readers, drive citation counts. Authors, institutions and funders of studies on frontier applications may consider these over collaborations, in seeking growth in citation counts.

Water ingestion affects orthostatic challenge-induced blood pressure and heart rate responses in young healthy subjects: gender implications.

Evidence exists that women have lower orthostatic tolerance than men during quiescent standing. Water ingestion has been demonstrated to improve orthostatic tolerance in patients with severe autonomic dysfunction. We therefore sought to test the hypothesis that water ingestion would improve orthostatic tolerance in healthy young women more than in aged-matched men. Thirty seven (22 men and 15 women) healthy subjects aged 22.5± 1.7 and 21.5±1.4 (means±SD) respectively, ingested 50ml (control) and 500ml of water 40min before orthostatic challenge on two separate days of appointment in a randomized controlled, cross-over design. Seated and standing blood pressure and heart rate were determined. Orthostatic tolerance was assessed as the time to presyncope during standing. Ingesting 500ml of water significantly improves orthostatic tolerance by 22% (32.0 ± 5.2 vs 26.2 ± 2.4min; p< 0.05) in men and by 33% (24.2±2.8 vs 18.3 ± 3.2; p< 0.05) in women. Thirty minutes after ingesting 500ml of water, seated systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure rose significantly in men while only systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure rose significantly in women. However ingesting 500ml of water did not have significant effect on seated heart rate in both men and women. Ingestion of 500ml of water significantly attenuated both the orthostatic challenge-induced increased heart rate and decreased pulse pressure responses especially in women. Diastolic blood pressure tended to be positively correlated with orthostatic tolerance strongly in men than in women. Pulse pressure correlated positively while heart rate correlated negatively to orthostatic tolerance in women but not in men independent of other correlates. Water ingestion is associated with orthostatic tolerance strongly in women but weakly in men independent of other correlates. In conclusion, the findings in the present study demonstrated that water ingestion caused improvement strongly in young women than in young men. This improvement is associated with increased pulse pressure and decreased tachycardiac responses during orthostatic challenge.