Integrated approaches to OCD intervention

In Ghana, farmer-herder conflicts have become widespread and increasingly assume a violent dimension. Competition over access to and use of land and water resources is at the center of the conflicts. However, competition does not automatically result in conflicts. The conflicts are driven by triggering activities of both farmers and herders. This study identifies triggers of farmer-herder conflicts in the Upper West Region of Ghana and tests the level of agreement among key stakeholder groups on the triggers of these conflicts. This is an important step in determining approaches to farmer-herder conflicts prevention and resolution. The data were collected via focus group discussions of five key stakeholder groups: chiefs-traditional rulers, Fulani herdsmen-cattle owners, crop farmers, civic society-media, and government agencies. Fourteen triggers of conflicts were identified by stakeholders, with destruction of crops by cattle ranking as the most important trigger. In testing agreement among stakeholder groups on triggers of conflicts, only crop farmers, chiefs-traditional rulers and government agencies significantly agree on the triggers of conflicts. There is also moderate level of concordance when the ranking of triggers of conflicts by all five stakeholder groups are simultaneously considered. The results show farmer-herder conflicts are complex and preventing and /or resolving these conflicts require integrated approaches.

Download Full-text

Eco-labelling and consumers: towards a re-focus and integrated approaches

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development ◽

10.1504/ijisd.2007.016932 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 175 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Frieder Rubik ◽

Paolo Frankl ◽

Lucia Pietroni ◽

Dirk Scheer

Keyword(s):

Integrated Approaches

Download Full-text

Pain anticipatory phenomena in patients with central poststroke pain: a magnetoencephalography study

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00215.2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 116 (3) ◽

pp. 1387-1395 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Raghavan Gopalakrishnan ◽

Richard C. Burgess ◽

Scott F. Lempka ◽

John T. Gale ◽

Darlene P. Floden ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronic Pain ◽

Visual Cues ◽

Neural Substrates ◽

Cognitive Networks ◽

Therapeutic Approaches ◽

Pain Experience ◽

Time Frequency ◽

Cognitive Components ◽

Chronic Effects ◽

Integrated Approaches

Central poststroke pain (CPSP) is characterized by hemianesthesia associated with unrelenting chronic pain. The final pain experience stems from interactions between sensory, affective, and cognitive components of chronic pain. Hence, managing CPSP will require integrated approaches aimed not only at the sensory but also the affective-cognitive spheres. A better understanding of the brain's processing of pain anticipation is critical for the development of novel therapeutic approaches that target affective-cognitive networks and alleviate pain-related disability. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to characterize the neural substrates of pain anticipation in patients suffering from intractable CPSP. Simple visual cues evoked anticipation while patients awaited impending painful (PS), nonpainful (NPS), or no stimulus (NOS) to their nonaffected and affected extremities. MEG responses were studied at gradiometer level using event-related fields analysis and time-frequency oscillatory analysis upon source localization. On the nonaffected side, significantly greater responses were recorded during PS. PS (vs. NPS and NOS) exhibited significant parietal and frontal cortical activations in the beta and gamma bands, respectively, whereas NPS (vs. NOS) displayed greater activation in the orbitofrontal cortex. On the affected extremity, PS (vs. NPS) did not show significantly greater responses. These data suggest that anticipatory phenomena can modulate neural activity when painful stimuli are applied to the nonaffected extremity but not the affected extremity in CPSP patients. This dichotomy may stem from the chronic effects of pain on neural networks leading to habituation or saturation. Future clinically effective therapies will likely be associated with partial normalization of the neurophysiological correlates of pain anticipation.

Download Full-text