COVID-19 induced shocks and its implications for human capital development.

Background: COVID-19 has delivered an enormous shock to the global economy, triggering the deepest recession in eight decades, almost three times as deep as the 2009 global recession. Of all the nations in Africa, Nigeria remains one of the nations with a huge and significant impact on the human capital.

Methods: Hence, here we employed the recent nationally representative data from Nigeria - the COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey 2020-World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study Integrated Agriculture Survey (LSMS-ISA), a harmonized dataset to explore how the COVID-19 induced shocks affected households' human capital development (using health and education outcomes).

Do soil and water conservation practices influence crop productivity and household welfare? Evidence from rural Nigeria.

One of the most serious challenges threatening agricultural sustainability in Nigeria is land degradation. Although this issue has received little attention, soil and water conservation practices have been identified as a possible pathway out of the potential problems posed by land degradation. Therefore, the central research question that this paper tries to address is the following: Do adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices affect crop productivity and household welfare? This paper uses data collected by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) from maize farmers in rural Nigeria.

Assessing food security among young farmers in Africa: evidence from Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda.

Food insecurity remains a serious challenge for many households in Africa and the situation is even more prevalent among young people. However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on youth food security status in Africa. We assessed the level and determinants of food security among young farmers in Africa.

COVID-19, food insecurity and dietary diversity of households: Survey evidence from Nigeria.

The policy measures of the government of Nigeria to restrain the spread of COVID-19, particularly in the initial three months (April - June 2020) led to significant disruptions to household livelihoods and food security. We investigate the effects of COVID-19 on food security and dietary diversity of households; focusing on the pathways through which income loss, endowments of wealth, social capital, and safety net programs moderate the severity of households' food security and dietary diversity. Primary data obtained from a telephone survey of 1,031 Nigerian households were analyzed using ordered logit and negative binomial models.

Disentangling Drivers of Food Waste in Households: Evidence from Nigeria.

Food waste is a burden on society in terms of the money wasted. There is limited information on the determinants of food waste and the amount lost to food waste by households as most previous studies were on post-harvest losses. Hence, determinants of food waste among households in Kogi West Senatorial District, Kogi State Nigeria were investigated.

Clean water, sanitation and under-five children diarrhea incidence: Empirical evidence from the South Africa's General Household Survey.

Sufficient supply of potable water, hygiene facilities, and sanitation are major factors enhancing healthy living. Using the dataset from the 2018 South Africa General Household Survey, this study employed the logistic regression model to examine the effects of accessibility to potable water and sanitation on the incidence of diarrhea among under-five children. The findings from the research reveal that the majority of children have access to safe drinking water, although a substantial percentage (32%) of the households had to pay for access.

Does economic shocks influence household's healthcare expenditure? Evidence from rural Nigeria.

Health is profoundly influenced by several factors outside the traditional realm of healthcare. This paper employed a two-step Heckman selectivity model to examine factors influencing the decision to spend on health and the effects of economic shocks on health expenditure. The results from the first stage shows that the likelihood of spending on health increased with age, education, income, and decreases if the household is living in the northern region of Nigeria and uses mosquito bed-net.

Does agricultural cooperative membership impact technical efficiency of maize production in Nigeria: An analysis correcting for biases from observed and unobserved attributes.

The formation of agricultural cooperatives has been widely promoted as an agricultural development policy initiative to help smallholder farmers cope with multiple production and marketing challenges. Using a nationally representative survey dataset of smallholder maize producers from rural Nigeria, this study assesses the impact of agricultural cooperative membership on technical efficiency (TE). We based our estimation approach on the combination of a newly developed sample selection stochastic production frontier model with propensity score matching to control for possible selectivity biases from both observables and unobservables.

Exploring the Resource Value of Transvaal Red Milk Wood ( ) for Food Security and Sustainability: An Appraisal of Existing Evidence.

Many African countries are endowed with rich biodiversity with enormous nutritional and economic prospects, but the majority of these resources are not fully harnessed. Exploring these neglected resources, for example, the Transvaal red milkwood tree [() Sond. family: Sapotaceae] is of paramount importance for food and nutritional security as well as economic prosperity.

What Drives Households' Payment for Waste Disposal and Recycling Behaviours? Empirical Evidence from South Africa's General Household Survey.

Safeguarding the environment and its citizens' health remains one of the key policy priorities of the governments of many developing and emerging countries. Using the 2017 General Household Survey (GHS) dataset, this study examines the driving factors affecting households' recycling behaviour and payment for waste disposal in South Africa. The methods of data analysis were based on descriptive statistics and a Bivariate Probit regression model.

Data on food insufficiency status in South Africa: Insight from the South Africa General Household Survey.

Food insecurity or insufficiency, among other factors, is triggered by structural inequalities. Food insecurity is an inflexible problematic situation in South Africa. The country has a custom of evidence-based decision making, stocked in the findings of generalized national household surveys.

Correction: Mother's nutrition-related knowledge and child nutrition outcomes: Empirical evidence from Nigeria.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Mother's nutrition-related knowledge and child nutrition outcomes: Empirical evidence from Nigeria.

Background: Nutrition outcomes among young children in Nigeria are among the worse globally. Mother's limited knowledge about food choices, feeding, and health care seeking practices contributes significantly to negative nutrition outcomes for children in most developing countries. Much less is known about the relationship between mother's nutrition-related knowledge and child nutritional outcomes in rural Nigeria.

New Food and Drug Administration-Approved and Emerging Novel Treatment Options for Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Advancements in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have been sparse during the past several decades, and the disease continues to have a poor prognosis. However, in 2017 alone, four new medications approved by the U.S.

The ABCs of Immunotherapy for Adult Patients With B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

Objective: To review the pharmacology, efficacy, and safety of Food and Drug Administration approved and promising immunotherapy agents used in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Data Sources: A literature search was performed of PubMed and MEDLINE databases (1950 to July 2017) and of abstracts from the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Searches were performed utilizing the following key terms: rituximab, blinatumomab, inotuzumab, ofatumumab, obinutuzumab, Blincyto, Rituxan, Gazyva, Arzerra, CAR T-cell, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR).

Upfront use of plerixafor and granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (GCSF) for stem cell mobilization in patients with multiple myeloma: efficacy and analysis of risk factors associated with poor stem cell collection efficiency.

Plerixafor (P), an agent that selectively and reversibly binds to the chemokine receptor CXCR4, has been approved in combination with G-CSF (P + G-CSF) for stem cell (SC) mobilization in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). The goal of this study was to determine the SC collection success rate of P + G-CSF using a clinically relevant outcome defined as the ability to collect at least 5 × 10 CD34 cells/kg to allow safely two transplants, and identify risk factors impacting SC mobilization. One hundred and thirty-eight patients were mobilized with P + G-CSF upfront following induction.

Pembrolizumab for the treatment of PD-L1 positive advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

The emergence of immune checkpoint inhibitors marked an important advancement in the development of cancer therapeutics. Pembrolizumab is a selective humanized IgG4 kappa monoclonal antibody that inhibits the programmed death-1 (PD-1) receptor, an integral component of immune checkpoint regulation in the tumor microenvironment. The drug is currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of advanced melanoma and metastatic squamous and nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Current status and future directions of the immune checkpoint inhibitors ipilimumab, pembrolizumab, and nivolumab in oncology.

Objective: To provide the clinician with an update and the current status and future direction of approved immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in oncology.

Data Sources: A PubMed search from January 1, 1966 to March 13, 2015 was performed using the key terms ipilimumab, pembrolizumab, lambrolizumab, nivolumab, immune checkpoint inhibitor, MDX-010, MDX-101, BMS-734016, MK-3475, SCH 900475, MDX-1106, BMS-936558, ONO-4538, CTLA-4, PD-1, or PD-L1 and cancer, oncology, or neoplasm. Additional references were identified from the investigators(') personal files, recent oncology meetings, review articles, clinical guidelines, and package inserts.