The UN has three agencies that work to promote food security and agricultural development: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). FAO is the worlds agricultural knowledge agency, providing policy and technical assistance to developing countries to promote food security, nutrition and sustainable agricultural production, particularly in rural areas. WFPs key mission is to deliver food into the hands of the hungry poor. The agency steps in during emergencies and uses food to aid recovery after emergencies. Its longer term approaches to hunger helps the transition from recovery to development. IFAD, with its knowledge of rural poverty and exclusive focus on poor rural people, designs and implements programmes to help those people access the assets, services and opportunities they need to overcome poverty.Following successful post WWII reconstruction of Germany and Japan, the IMF and WB began to turn their attention to the developing world. A great many civil society actors were also active in trying to combat hunger, especially after the late 1970s when global media began to bring the plight of starving people in places like Ethiopia to wider attention. Most significant of all, especially in the late 1960s and 70s, the Green revolution helped improved agricultural technology propagate throughout the world.The United States began to change its approach to the problem of world hunger from about the mid 1950s.
A ring chromosome is an aberrant chromosome whose ends have fused together to form a ring. Ring chromosomes were first discovered by Lilian Vaughan Morgan in 1926. A ring chromosome is denoted by the symbol r in human genetics and R in Drosophila genetics. Ring chromosomes may form in cells following genetic damage by mutagens like radiation, but they may also arise spontaneously during development. Formation
In order for a chromosome to form a ring, both ends of the chromosome are usually missing, enabling the broken ends to fuse together. In rare cases, the telomeres at the ends of a chromosome fuse without any loss of genetic material, which results in a normal phenotype.Complex rearrangements, including segmental microdeletions and microduplications, have been seen in numerous ring chromosomes, providing important clues regarding the mechanisms of their formation.Small supernumary rings can also form, resulting in a partial trisomy.Ring chromosomes are unstable during cell division and can form interlocking or fused rings. Associated syndromes
Human genetic disorders can be caused by ring chromosome formation. Although ring chromosomes are very rare, they have been found in all human chromosomes. Symptoms seen in patients carrying ring chromosomes are more likely to be caused by the deletion of genes in the telomeric regions of affected chromosomes, rather than by the formation of a ring structure itself. Almost all ring chromosome syndromes feature marked growth delay.Ring chromosomes can be inherited or sporadic. Mosaicism is common and affects the severity of the condition.