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The study is an examination of agricultural finance for smallholder communal farmers in Zimbabwe. It is accepted as reality that generally in Africa and particularly in Zimbabwe there exists a gap between the supply of and demand for credit among communal rural farmers. There have been previous attempts by governments to close the finance gap through supply of cheap credit but these efforts have neither been successful nor sustainable. The gap has been sustained by arguments that financing rural agriculture has high transaction costs, low returns on investment and is risky business. Formal financial services providers prefer to provide loans to well established urban businesses, rather than numerous small loans to scattered rural farmers in remote areas where transport, communication, energy and farm infrastructure are underdeveloped. The result is a serious and long lasting rural finance gap that keeps the economic potential of agriculture underused. Banks require collateral security from farmers but this is a major constraint due to land tenure restrictions. There have been some studies around the subject of rural financing and rural financial markets. A review of literature reveals that not much has been invested in studying the determinants of access to rural financing and of credit rationing for smallholder farmers by formal financial institutions in Zimbabwe. The empirical methods used in this study have not been employed in Zimbabwe to identify and recommend policy options to close the finance gap. The specific objectives were to i) to identify and examine the determinants of access to agricultural financial markets for smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe, and ii) to assess credit rationing as a result of the demand for loans exceeding the supply, by identifying and examining the determinants of credit rationing among smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. Objective (iii) would draw from objectives (i) and (ii) to recommend policy options and financing models to close, University of the Free State, School of Post Graduate Studies

Objectives: Body mass index (BMI) is one of the most important risk factors for different metabolic and cardiovascular disorders. Previously, both genetic and environmental agents associated with BMI have been described. The main focus of this exploratory study was to find the circulating metabolites associated with BMI utilizing an untargeted metabolomics approach. Additionally, significant metabolites identified were studied for their relation with BMIassociated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Materials and Methods: A total of 971 individuals from the Cancer of the Prostate in Sweden study (discovery sample- 275 prostate cancers patients and 182 controls; replication sample- 514 prostate cancer patients) were utilized. Blood samples were collected and serum metabolic profiling was obtained using ultra-performance liquid chromatography followed by mass spectrometry. Genotyping data was available for 26 out of 32 SNPs (21 genotyped and 5 proxies) previously robustly associated with BMI in individuals of European descent. Weighted genetic risk score was generated using these SNPs and studied for its association with metabolites. Results: A total of 6138 and 5209 metabolite features were detected in discovery and replication samples, respectively. Out of 6138 metabolite features in discovery sample, 201 were found to be significantly associated with BMI (p<8.15*10-6) after multiple testing correction. These 201 features were further investigated in the replication samples and 16 were found to be significantly associated with BMI (p<2.49*10-4). Seven of these significant features were isotopes for four of the primary metabolites. Four metabolites were putatively identified: monoacylglyceride (18:1), diacylglyrcerol (32:1) and two phosphatidylcholines (34:0 and 36:0). Weighted genetic score of BMI-associated SNPs was not associated with these four metabolites. Conclusion: Four identifiable metabolites (monoacylglyceride, diacyclglyrcerol and two phosphatid, De två sista författarna delar sistaförfattarskapet.

Background: Circulating lipids levels, as well as several familial lipid metabolism disorders, are strongly associated with initiation and progression of atherosclerosis and incidence of myocardial infarction (MI). Objectives: We hypothesized that genetic variants associated with circulating lipid levels would also be associated with MI incidence, and have tested this in three independent samples. Setting and Subjects: Using age- and sex-adjusted additive genetic models, we analyzed 554 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 41 candidate gene regions proposed to be involved in lipid-related pathways potentially predisposing to incidence of MI in 2,602 participants of the Swedish Twin Register (STR; 57% women). All associations with nominal P<0.01 were further investigated in the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men (ULSAM; N = 1,142). Results: In the present study, we report associations of lipid-related SNPs with incident MI in two community-based longitudinal studies with in silico replication in a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies. Overall, there were 9 SNPs in STR with nominal P-value <0.01 that were successfully genotyped in ULSAM. rs4149313 located in ABCA1 was associated with MI incidence in both longitudinal study samples with nominal significance (hazard ratio, 1.36 and 1.40; P-value, 0.004 and 0.015 in STR and ULSAM, respectively). In silico replication supported the association of rs4149313 with coronary artery disease in an independent meta-analysis including 173,975 individuals of European descent from the CARDIoGRAMplusC4D consortium (odds ratio, 1.03; P-value, 0.048). Conclusions: rs4149313 is one of the few amino acid changing variants in ABCA1 known to associate with reduced cholesterol efflux. Our results are suggestive of a weak association between this variant and the development of atherosclerosis and MI.

Tandem mass spectrometry using precursor ion selection (MS/MS) is an invaluable tool for structural elucidation of small molecules. In non-targeted metabolite profiling studies, instrument duty cycle limitations and experimental costs have driven efforts towards alternate approaches. Recently, researchers have begun to explore methods for collecting indiscriminant MS/MS (idMS/MS) data in which the fragmentation process does not involve precursor ion isolation. While this approach has many advantages, importantly speed, sensitivity and coverage, confident assignment of precursor-product ion relationships is challenging, which has inhibited broad adoption of the technique. Here, we present an approach that uses open source software to improve the assignment of precursor-product relationships in idMS/MS data by appending a dataset-wide correlational analysis to existing tools. The utility of the approach was demonstrated using a dataset of standard compounds spiked into a malt-barley background, as well as unspiked human serum. The workflow was able to recreate idMS/MS spectra which are highly similar to standard MS/MS spectra of authentic standards, even in the presence of a complex matrix background. The application of this approach has the potential to generate high quality idMS/MS spectra for each detectable molecular feature, which will streamline the identification process for non-targeted metabolite profiling studies.

The gene encoding sortilin receptor 1 (SORL1) has been associated with Alzheimer's disease risk. We examined 15 SORL1 variants and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) set risk scores in relation to longitudinal verbal, spatial, memory, and perceptual speed performance, testing for age trends and sex-specific effects. Altogether, 1609 individuals from 3 population-based Swedish twin studies were assessed up to 5 times across 16 years. Controlling for apolipoprotein E genotype (APOE), multiple simple and sex-moderated associations were observed for spatial, episodic memory, and verbal trajectories (p = 1.25E-03 to p = 4.83E-02). Five variants (rs11600875, rs753780, rs7105365, rs11820794, rs2070045) were associated across domains. Notably, in those homozygous for the rs2070045 risk allele, men demonstrated initially favorable performance but accelerating declines, and women showed overall lower performance. SNP set risk scores predicted spatial (Card Rotations, p = 5.92E-03) and episodic memory trajectories (Thurstone Picture Memory, p = 3.34E-02), where higher risk scores benefited men's versus women's performance up to age 75 but with accelerating declines. SORL1 is associated with cognitive aging, and might contribute differentially to change in men and women.

The study of the genetic regulation of metabolism in human serum samples can contribute to a better understanding of the intermediate biological steps that lead from polymorphism to disease. Here, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to discover metabolic quantitative trait loci (mQTLs) utilizing samples from a study of prostate cancer in Swedish men, consisting of 402 individuals (214 cases and 188 controls) in a discovery set and 489 case-only samples in a replication set. A global nontargeted metabolite profiling approach was utilized resulting in the detection of 6,138 molecular features followed by targeted identification of associated metabolites. Seven replicating loci were identified (PYROXD2, FADS1, PON1, CYP4F2, UGT1A8, ACADL, and LIPC) with associated sequence variants contributing significantly to trait variance for one or more metabolites (P = 10(-13) -10(-91)). Regional mQTL enrichment analyses implicated two loci that included FADS1 and a novel locus near PDGFC. Biological pathway analysis implicated ACADM, ACADS, ACAD8, ACAD10, ACAD11, and ACOXL, reflecting significant enrichment of genes with acyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity. mQTL SNPs and mQTL-harboring genes were over-represented across GWASs conducted to date, suggesting that these data may have utility in tracing the molecular basis of some complex disease associations.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that allow for allelic heterogeneity may facilitate the discovery of novel genes not detectable by models that require replication of a single variant site. One strategy to accomplish this is to focus on genes rather than markers as units of association, and so potentially capture a spectrum of causal alleles that differ across populations. Here, we conducted a GWAS of Alzheimer disease (AD) in 2,586 Swedes and performed gene-based meta-analysis with three additional studies from France, Canada, and the United States, in total encompassing 4,259 cases and 8,284 controls. Implementing a newly designed gene-based algorithm, we identified two loci apart from the region around APOE that achieved study-wide significance in combined samples, the strongest finding being for FRMD6 on chromosome 14q (P = 2.6 × 10(-14)) and a weaker signal for NARS2 that is immediately adjacent to GAB2 on chromosome 11q (P = 7.8 × 10(-9)). Ontology-based pathway analyses revealed significant enrichment of genes involved in glycosylation. Results suggest that gene-based approaches that accommodate allelic heterogeneity in GWAS can provide a complementary avenue for gene discovery and may help to explain a portion of the missing heritability not detectable with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) derived from marker-specific meta-analysis.

The lysosomal protease cathepsin D (CtsD, EC 3.4.23.5; gene, CTSD) has been associated with Alzheimer disease (AD) due to its cerebral expression being increased early in the course of AD; additionally, a CTSD exon 2 polymorphism (rs17571; NT_009237.17:g.569834T>C) may confer risk to AD. Functionally, it may be implicated in amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing and tau protein degradation. The objective of this study was to determine whether the CTSD exon 2 polymorphism affects cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), concentrations of beta-amyloid (Aβ42) and tau in two independent samples from Germany (n=73) and Sweden (n=66). Patients carrying the CTSD rs17571-T allele had significantly decreased CSF levels of tau (Munich, p=0.003; Swedish, p=0.029; combined sample, p<0.001), whereas no significant effect was observed on Aβ42 concentrations. Likewise, no significant impact was observed on Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores. The data of both independent samples suggest that the CTSD rs17571 polymorphism does not affect APP processing but shows significant effects on tau processing. The result may corroborate the implication of the lysosomal system in the pathogenesis of AD and is of particular importance if CSF tau is used as a diagnostic biomarker.

Catalogs of intra-gene polymorphisms are needed to facilitate wide-ranging candidate gene-based association studies in common complex diseases. With this in mind, we have scanned multiple alignments of expressed sequence tags and of genomic DNA sequences (PCR products from four to eight unrelated individuals) to find polymorphisms in 195 genes putatively involved in neurodegenerative illness (including components of oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, inflammation, apoptosis and aging). This led to the discovery of 167 polymorphisms in 88 genes. These comprised 163 single nucleotide polymorphisms, one insertion/deletion, and three other variations involving more than one base pair. The polymorphisms were distributed in the exons (87), introns (70), and gene flanking regions (10). Of the exonic polymorphisms, 17 would give rise to non-synonymous amino acid substitutions. These findings now provide a valuable resource for association studies in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.