Study of the perceptions of the educational environment among undergraduate medical students of Taylor's University.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. A conducive educational environment is vital to successful learning. Perception of students about their particular educational environment may vary depending on their educational background, gender, level of study, and many other factors. Awareness and understanding of the students' perception of educational environment are a key to improve our teaching and learning environment. The aim of the study was to determine the perception of undergraduate medical students of Taylor's University, Malaysia on their educational environment. A cross sectional cohort study was conducted among preclinical and clinical students simultaneously at Taylor's University, School of Medicine in July 2019. Overall total scores of perceptions (136.55 ± 19.6) and those for the subscales were very satisfactory and similar to those of other local universities as well as international universities. There was a significant difference between preclinical and clinical students in two domains; Perception of Course Organizers and Academic Self-Perception, with higher scores among clinical students in all. There was a significant difference between students with Grade 'B' and those with Grade 'C' in the mean total score and Perceptions of Atmosphere. These results, in spite of being satisfactory, urge us to seek methods of and opportunities for further enhancement of the students' education environment.

A decision support tool to enhance agricultural growth in the Mékrou river basin (West Africa).

We describe in this paper the implementation of E-Water, an open software Decision Support System (DSS), designed to help local managers assess the Water Energy Food Environment (WEFE) nexus. E-Water aims at providing optimal management solutions to enhance food crop production at river basin level. The DSS was applied in the transboundary Mékrou river basin, shared among Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger. The primary sector for local economy in the region is agriculture, contributing significantly to income generation and job creation. Fostering the productivity of regional agricultural requires the intensification of farming practices, promoting additional inputs (mainly nutrient fertilizers and water irrigation) but, also, a more efficient allocation of cropland. In order to cope with the heterogeneity of data, and the analyses and issues required by the WEFE nexus approach, our DSS integrates the following modules: (1) the EPIC biophysical agricultural model; (2) a simplified regression metamodel, linking crop production with external inputs; (3) a linear programming and a multiobjective genetic algorithm optimization routines for finding efficient agricultural strategies; and (4) a user-friendly interface for input/output analysis and visualization. To test the main features of the DSS, we apply it to various real and hypothetical scenarios in the Mékrou river basin. The results obtained show how food unavailability due to insufficient local production could be reduced by, approximately, one third by enhancing the application and optimal distribution of fertilizers and irrigation. That would also affect the total income of the farming sector, eventually doubling it in the best case scenario. Furthermore, the combination of optimal agricultural strategies and modified optimal cropland allocation across the basin would bring additional moderate increases in food self-sufficiency, and more substantial gains in the total agricultural income. The proposed software framework proves to be effective, enabling decision makers to identify efficient and site-specific agronomic management strategies for nutrients and water. Such practices would augment crop productivity, which, in turn, would allow to cope with increasing future food demands, and find a balanced use of natural resources, also taking other economic sectors-like livestock, urban or energy-into account.

Selection for earlier flowering crop associated with climatic variations in the Sahel.

Climate changes will have an impact on food production and will require costly adaptive responses. Adapting to a changing environment will be particularly challenging in sub-Saharan Africa where climate change is expected to have a major impact. However, one important phenomenon that is often overlooked and is poorly documented is the ability of agro-systems to rapidly adapt to environmental variations. Such an adaptation could proceed by the adoption of new varieties or by the adaptation of varieties to a changing environment. In this study, we analyzed these two processes in one of the driest agro-ecosystems in Africa, the Sahel. We performed a detailed study in Niger where pearl millet is the main crop and covers 65% of the cultivated area. To assess how the agro-system is responding to recent recurrent drought, we analyzed samples of pearl millet landraces collected in the same villages in 1976 and 2003 throughout the entire cultivated area of Niger. We studied phenological and morphological differences in the 1976 and 2003 collections by comparing them over three cropping seasons in a common garden experiment. We found no major changes in the main cultivated varieties or in their genetic diversity. However, we observed a significant shift in adaptive traits. Compared to the 1976 samples, samples collected in 2003 displayed a shorter lifecycle, and a reduction in plant and spike size. We also found that an early flowering allele at the PHYC locus increased in frequency between 1976 and 2003. The increase exceeded the effect of drift and sampling, suggesting a direct effect of selection for earliness on this gene. We conclude that recurrent drought can lead to selection for earlier flowering in a major Sahelian crop. Surprisingly, these results suggest that diffusion of crop varieties is not the main driver of short term adaptation to climatic variation.

Clinical experience with adalimumab in a multicenter Swiss cohort of patients with Crohn's disease.

BACKGROUND: Controlled clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy and safety of adalimumab in patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease (CD), but there is, however, only limited long-term experience with adalimumab in daily practice. AIM: To assess the long-term effectiveness and safety of adalimumab in a multicenter cohort of practice-based patients with moderate-to-severe CD. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the charts of CD patients who received adalimumab over a 3-year period. Disease severity was scored using the Harvey-Bradshaw index (HBI). Remission was defined as an HBI of 3 points at evaluation compared to the baseline. Univariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the predictive variables associated with response. RESULTS: The charts of 55 patients were reviewed; remission and response rates observed at weeks 4-6 were 52.7 and 83.6%, respectively. Remission was maintained at weeks 12, 24 and 52 in 89.6, 72.4 and 44.7% of patients, respectively. Remission and response rates were not influenced by smoking status, disease location or duration, the first month total dose, or previous infliximab therapy. The remission rate at weeks 4-6 was significantly higher in patients intolerant of infliximab as compared to those who lost response to this drug. Adalimumab was well tolerated overall. CONCLUSION: Adalimumab can be considered a suitable option in patients with moderate-to-severe CD, demonstrating sustained long-term effectiveness.