Negative Evidence Research Articles

Negative evidence for a role of APH1B T27I variant in Alzheimer’s disease

γ-secretase is a macromolecular complex that catalyzes intramembranous hydrolysis of more than 100 membrane-bound substrates. The complex is composed of presenilin (PS1 or PS2), anterior pharynx defect-1 (APH-1), nicastrin (NCT) and PEN-2 and early-onset; autosomal dominant forms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are caused by inheritance of mutations of PS. No mutations in genes encoding NCT, or PEN-2 have been identified to date that cause AD. In this regard, a large genetic meta-analysis of four cohorts consisting of more than 600 000 individuals identified a common missense variant, rs117618017 in the APH1B gene that results in a T27I mutation, as a novel genome-wide significant locus. In order to confirm the findings that rs117618017 is associated with risk of AD, we performed a genetic screen from deep whole genome sequencing of the large NIMH family-based Alzheimer's Disease (AD) dataset. In parallel, we sought to uncover potential molecular mechanism(s) by which APH-1B T27I might be associated with AD by generating stable HEK293 cell lines, wherein endogenous APH-1A and APH-1B expression was silenced and into which either the wild type APH-1B or the APH-1B T27I variant was stably expressed. We then tested the impact of expressing either the wild type APH-1B or the APH-1B T27I variant on γ-secretase processing of human APP, the murine Notch derivative mNΔE and human neuregulin-1. We now report that we fail to confirm the association of rs1047552 with AD in our cohort and that cells expressing the APH-1B T27I variant show no discernable impact on the γ-secretase processing of established substrates compared with cells expressing wild-type APH-1B.

Order Flows, Investor Sentiments and Feedback Trade in Index Futures Market

This paper examines the presence of feedback trading, and investor sentiment drove feedback trading by traders in the Nifty 50 index futures contract in India. The results of the study using high-frequency data sampled at 10 min interval using VAR and contemporaneous VAR model as applied to market microstructure settings reveals negative evidence of feedback trade and investor sentiment-driven feedback trade in Nifty 50 futures contract. Further, consistency with noise trading hypothesis, order flows in Nifty 50 futures contract is less informative when traders are overly optimistic.

On aggregating probabilistic evidence

Abstract Imagine a database—a set of propositions $\varGamma =\{F_1,\ldots ,F_n\}$ with some kind of probability estimates and let a proposition $X$ logically follow from $\varGamma $. What is the best justified lower bound of the probability of $X$? The traditional approach, e.g. within Adams’ probability logic, computes the numeric lower bound for $X$ corresponding to the worst-case scenario. We suggest a more flexible parameterized approach by assuming probability events $u_1,u_2,\ldots ,u_n$ that support $\varGamma $ and calculating aggregated evidence$e(u_1,u_2,\ldots ,u_n)$ for $X$. The probability of $e$ provides a tight lower bound for any, not only a worst-case, situation. The problem is formalized in a version of justification logic and the conclusions are supported by corresponding completeness theorems. This approach can handle conflicting and inconsistent data and allows the gathering both positive and negative evidence for the same proposition.

025 Determining the Effects of Omecamtiv Mecarbil on Human Failing Ventricular Trabeculae and Interaction With (-)-Noradrenaline Via the β1-adrenoceptor

Omecamtiv mecarbil (OM) is a novel medicine for systolic heart failure, targeting myosin to enhance cardiomyocyte performance. However, OM had negative diastolic effects and evidence of ischaemia at supratherapeutic doses. To assist translation to clinical practice we investigated OMs effect on ventricular trabeculae from explanted human failing hearts, specifically; contractile dynamics, interaction with the β1–adrenoceptor (AR) agonist (-)-noradrenaline and arrhythmia genesis. Ventricular trabeculae from explanted failing hearts were paced under tension and incubated with or without a single concentration of OM for 120 mins. Time to peak force (TPF) and 50% relaxation (t50%) were recorded. Cumulative concentration-effect curves were established to (-)-noradrenaline at β1-ARs in the absence or presence of OM, whilst β2-AR, α1-ARs and neuronal uptake were blocked. Stimulators were switched off and trabeculae observed for arrhythmic contractions. OM prolonged TPF and t50% in ventricle (600 nM, 2 mM, p<0.001) but had no effect on inotropic force. OM did not affect the generation of arrhythmic contractions. The potency of (-)-noradrenaline (pEC50 6.05±0.10), for inotropic effect, was unchanged in the presence of OM 600 nM or 2 μM. (-)-Noradrenaline reversed the negative diastolic effects of OM at maximal β1-AR effect. In ventricular trabeculae from explanted human failing hearts, OM prolonged TPF and t50%, but had no effect on contractile force, generation of arrhythmic contractions or potency of (-)-noradrenaline at β1-ARs. The competing diastolic effects of OM and (-)-noradrenaline may prove clinically important. If used together in patients with cardiogenic shock.

Apremilast to treat oral ulcers in Behçet syndrome.

Apremilast, an oral small molecule, is a phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE-4) blocker. It has been shown to be efficacious in managing psoriasis (PS) and psoriatic arthritis (PSA). In two controlled studies, it was also effective in controlling oral ulcers of Behçet syndrome (Bsy). The main side effects associated with apremilast are diarrhea, nausea and headaches. These are usually transient and apremilast requires almost no laboratory monitoring during its use. An important issue is whether apremilast will also be useful in other debilitating and life-threatening manifestations of Bsy, for which there is yet no negative or positive evidence. The experience with apremilast use in PS/PSA will surely be helpful in foreseeing and managing potential adverse events of apremilast use for any other indication in Bsy. On the other hand, the author does not consider the proposed similarities in disease mechanisms between PS/PSA and Bsy strong enough to guide us as to where and when to use apremilast in Bsy.

Response to Blust "The Resurrection of Proto-Philippines"

This article is a response to Blust's lengthy article in Oceanic Linguistics 58(2): 153–256 in which he begins by critiquing an old paper (Reid 1982) that he knows I no longer believe in, but Blust continues to discuss it as though it is still my current position. His article is an attempt to establish his Proto-Philippines (PPh) primarily by reconstructing a large body of lexical items that he assumes are only found in the Philippines. I do not believe a PPh existed. I discuss multiple problems in phonology that are apparent in his reconstructions, both in the article and his online Austronesian Comparative Dictionary from which he has drawn his reconstructions. This includes the issue of prenasalization, its direction, and loss. Much of the discussion is involved with borrowing, or Blust'sterm "leakage," which assumes the reality of a PPh. His discussion of borrowing rejects what is known and discussed by other researchers. There is discussion of relying on negative evidence for assuming the reality of a hypothesis that Blust claims I was guilty of, and of which he is also guilty. The Blust article does not discuss the position of the languages of many Negrito groups in relation to his PPh, where his earlier articles do. The problems with his PPh are summarized in the conclusion.

Positive and Negative Evidence Accumulation Clustering for Sensor Fusion: An Application to Heartbeat Clustering.

In this work, a new clustering algorithm especially geared towards merging data arising from multiple sensors is presented. The algorithm, called PN-EAC, is based on the ensemble clustering paradigm and it introduces the novel concept of negative evidence. PN-EAC combines both positive evidence, to gather information about the elements that should be grouped together in the final partition, and negative evidence, which has information about the elements that should not be grouped together. The algorithm has been validated in the electrocardiographic domain for heartbeat clustering, extracting positive evidence from the heartbeat morphology and negative evidence from the distances between heartbeats. The best result obtained on the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database yielded an error of 1.44%. In the St. Petersburg Institute of Cardiological Technics 12-Lead Arrhythmia Database database (INCARTDB), an error of 0.601% was obtained when using two electrocardiogram (ECG) leads. When increasing the number of leads to 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12, the algorithm obtains better results (statistically significant) than with the previous number of leads, reaching an error of 0.338%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first clustering algorithm that is able to process simultaneously any number of ECG leads. Our results support the use of PN-EAC to combine different sources of information and the value of the negative evidence.

The negative evidence hypothesis: the acquisition of the double-object construction by Brazilian-Portuguese English bilinguals

This study aims to add to the body of evidence regarding the linguistic structures that seem to be more challenging in L2 acquisition than in L1 acquisition (DeKeyser, 2005; Ellis, 2008; Inagaki, 2001; Slabakova, 2014; Sorace, 2011). The Negative Evidence Hypothesis (NEH) (AUTHOR) predicts that bilinguals are less sensitive than native speakers to violations resulted from the overgeneralization of an L2-specific rule. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing the behavior of Brazilian Portuguese-English bilinguals with different profiles towards double-object construction with unlicensed verbs in two acceptability judgment tasks. The results corroborate the NEH by conveying that bilinguals gain sensitivity as they become more proficient, yet, the data suggests that not even when immersed in the L2, they become as sensitive as native speakers.

The Roles of Positive and Negative Evidence in the Development of the English Present Progressive Structure

The type of linguistic evidence necessary for ultimate L2 attainment has been a major topic of debate. This research investigates the role of negative vs. positive evidence in the acquisition of the affirmative and negative present progressive structures. Following a quasi-experimental design, 49 Saudi EFL learners were divided into three groups: Control Group (n=13), Negative Evidence group (n=15), and Positive Evidence group (n=21). It was hypothesized that negative evidence would be more effective for the acquisition of the present progressive structure than positive evidence, to the point that a significant difference would result between the performance of the two experimental groups. The participants took a pre-test, after which they were given classroom intervention sessions on the use of the English present progressive structure. They then took a post-test. The results show significant differences in the performance of the experimental groups compared to the control group. However, there was no statistical difference between the two experimental groups. Thus, the research supports the importance of the role of negative evidence in teaching L2 when paired with positive evidence. We outline pedagogical implications for further research to determine the extent to which the two types of evidence can be blended in English language classrooms.

Fagin: synteny-based phylostratigraphy and finer classification of young genes

BackgroundWith every new genome that is sequenced, thousands of species-specific genes (orphans) are found, some originating from ultra-rapid mutations of existing genes, many others originating de novo from non-genic regions of the genome. If some of these genes survive across speciations, then extant organisms will contain a patchwork of genes whose ancestors first appeared at different times. Standard phylostratigraphy, the technique of partitioning genes by their age, is based solely on protein similarity algorithms. However, this approach relies on negative evidence ─ a failure to detect a homolog of a query gene. An alternative approach is to limit the search for homologs to syntenic regions. Then, genes can be positively identified as de novo orphans by tracing them to non-coding sequences in related species.ResultsWe have developed a synteny-based pipeline in the R framework. Fagin determines the genomic context of each query gene in a focal species compared to homologous sequence in target species. We tested the fagin pipeline on two focal species, Arabidopsis thaliana (plus four target species in Brassicaseae) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (plus six target species in Saccharomyces). Using microsynteny maps, fagin classified the homology relationship of each query gene against each target genome into three main classes, and further subclasses: AAic (has a coding syntenic homolog), NTic (has a non-coding syntenic homolog), and Unknown (has no detected syntenic homolog). fagin inferred over half the “Unknown” A. thaliana query genes, and about 20% for S. cerevisiae, as lacking a syntenic homolog because of local indels or scrambled synteny.Conclusionsfagin augments standard phylostratigraphy, and extends synteny-based phylostratigraphy with an automated, customizable, and detailed contextual analysis. By comparing synteny-based phylostrata to standard phylostrata, fagin systematically identifies those orphans and lineage-specific genes that are well-supported to have originated de novo. Analyzing within-species genomes should distinguish orphan genes that may have originated through rapid divergence from de novo orphans. Fagin also delineates whether a gene has no syntenic homolog because of technical or biological reasons. These analyses indicate that some orphans may be associated with regions of high genomic perturbation.

Experimental assessment of capacities for cumulative culture: Review and evaluation of methods.

In the current literature, there are few experimental tests of capacities for cumulative cultural evolution in nonhuman species. There are even fewer examples of such tests in young children. This limited evidence is noteworthy given widespread interest in the apparent distinctiveness of human cumulative culture, and the potentially significant theoretical implications of identifying related capacities in nonhumans or very young children. We evaluate experimental methods upon which claims of capacities for cumulative culture, or lack thereof, have been based. Although some of the established methods (those simulating generational succession) have the potential to identify positive evidence that fulfills widely accepted definitions of cumulative culture, the implementation of these methods entails significant logistical challenges. This is particularly true for testing populations that are difficult to access in large numbers, or those not amenable to experimental control. This presents problems for generating evidence that would be sufficient to support claims of capacities for cumulative culture, and these problems are magnified for establishing convincing negative evidence. We discuss alternative approaches to assessing capacities for cumulative culture, which circumvent logistical problems associated with experimental designs involving chains of learners. By inferring the outcome of repeated transmission from the input–output response patterns of individual subjects, sample size requirements can be massively reduced. Such methods could facilitate comparisons between populations, for example, different species, or children of a range of ages. We also detail limitations and challenges of this alternative approach, and discuss potential avenues for future research.This article is categorized under:Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of CognitionCognitive Biology > Cognitive DevelopmentPsychology > Comparative Psychology

Clients' perceptions of unhelpful factors in CBT in IAPT serving a deprived area of the UK

AbstractAim/PurposeImproving access to psychological therapies (IAPT) is a main provider of psychological therapy for adults within the NHS. NHS Digital (2016) reported the dropout rate in IAPT to be as high as 43%. Proctor (2014) found that unhelpful factors in therapy could contribute to the dropout rate. As CBT is the main modality in IAPT, it is important to explore unhelpful factors in CBT as they might be contributing to the dropout rate in IAPT.Design/MethodologyNine clients (five men and four women) for whom CBT was not helpful were interviewed using a semi‐structured protocol. The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis.Results/FindingsSix themes have been identified: 1) Difficulties with CBT itself (e.g. identifying and challenging negative thoughts and finding alternative evidence as well as homework); 2) Negative perception of therapists (e.g. queried if therapists were committed and had empathy); 3) Clients’ unhelpful internal patterns (e.g. unrealistic expectations or feeling self‐critical); 4) Physical health, mental health and psychosocial barriers (e.g. feeling too depressed or anxious to undertake CBT); 5) Unhelpful IAPT processes (e.g. difficulties with outcome measures and assessments); and 6) Consequences of unhelpful treatment (e.g. not addressing core underlying issues and clients feeling worse).Conclusions/Implications (including practice implications)The findings indicate that all practitioners should consider unhelpful factors in therapy, as they have potentially detrimental effects on clients' outcomes. Additionally, this research found that therapeutic interventions need to be tailored to clients' goals, internal patterns and preferences. Importantly, it was found that unhelpful factors extend to health and psychosocial issues which should be addressed prior to therapy.

Object-Label-Order Effect When Learning From an Inconsistent Source.

Learning in natural environments is often characterized by a degree of inconsistency from an input. These inconsistencies occur, for example, when learning from more than one source, or when the presence of environmental noise distorts incoming information; as a result, the task faced by the learner becomes ambiguous. In this study, we investigate how learners handle such situations. We focus on the setting where a learner receives and processes a sequence of utterances to master associations between objects and their labels, where the source is inconsistent by design: It uses both "correct" and "incorrect" object-label pairings. We hypothesize that depending on the order of presentation, the result of the learning may be different. To this end, we consider two types of symbolic learning procedures: the Object-Label (OL) and the Label-Object (LO) process. In the OL process, the learner is first exposed to the object, and then the label. In the LO process, this order is reversed. We perform experiments with human subjects, and also construct a computational model that is based on a nonlinear stochastic reinforcement learning algorithm. It is observed experimentally that OL learners are generally better at processing inconsistent input compared to LO learners. We show that the patterns observed in the learning experiments can be reproduced in the simulations if the model includes (a) an ability to regularize the input (and also to do the opposite, i.e., undermatch) and (b) an ability to take account of implicit negative evidence (i.e., interactions among different objects/labels). The model suggests that while both types of learners utilize implicit negative evidence in a similar way, there is a difference in regularization patterns: OL learners regularize the input, whereas LO learners undermatch. As a result, OL learners are able to form a more consistent system of image-utterance associations, despite the ambiguous learning task.

Abstract 4176: Familial lung cancer exhibits multiple novel linked haplotypes within pedigrees

Abstract Lung cancer (LC) kills more people in the United States each year than any other cancer. While it is well known that a variety of environmental factors (particularly tobacco smoke) strongly increase the risk of LC, there are multiple associated genetic variants with small contributions to risk. High aggregation of LC within rare individual families suggest that there are high-risk genetic variants as well. However, these genetic risk factors for LC are under studied due to the rapid fatality of LC. We studied 28 highly aggregated extended high-risk familial lung cancer (HRFLC) families collected from eight different sites across the US. Whole exome sequencing was performed on 290 individuals from these families to identify potential risk variants for HRFLC using genetic linkage analysis. Quality control was performed on the sequence data, filtering on parameters such as read depth, genotype quality, missingness, and Mendelian inconsistencies. Identity-by-descent (IBD) values were also calculated to verify correct familial relationships. Quality control procedures left approximately 400,000 SNVs and indels for analysis.Parametric two-point linkage analysis was performed assuming an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance. Disease allele frequency was set to 1% with a penetrance of 80% for carriers and 1% phenocopy rate. While we did not identify any genome-wide significant variants across the 28 families, multiple suggestive variants were identified. The largest cluster of suggestive variants was located at 14q32 in the CATSPERB gene. Given the likely locus heterogeneity in LC (combined with the lack of power in some families), it is not surprising that none of the variants were significant across the families; looking at the individual family results proved more informative. Long haplotypes linked to LC risk were identified in multiple families. These long runs of positive linkages, which have little to no negative linkage evidence across them, are characteristic of true linkage signals in these types of analysis. Two of the most interesting linked regions were at 7p36.1 and 4q21.23-28.23. The 7p signal (observed in a single family) was genome-wide suggestive and located within the SSPO gene. SSPO has been implicated in breast and skin cancer (melanoma); it is a novel lung cancer signal. The 4q linkage (again observed in a single family) covers a large chunk of 4q and contains multiple potential candidate genes, however, the best candidate gene is PTPN13, a gene implicated in lung cancer but never in familial lung cancer. We are currently evaluating the individual family results of several other pedigrees and plan to perform additional analyses to confirm these linkages. Citation Format: Anthony Musolf, Haiming Sun, Bilal A. Moiz, Claudio W. Pikielny, Mariza de Andrade, Diptasri Mandal, Colette Gaba, Ping Yang, Yafang Li, Ming You, Richard K. Wilson, Elena Y. Kupert, Marshall W. Anderson, Ann G. Schwartz, Susan M. Pinney, Christopher I. Amos, Ramaswamy Govindan, Joan E. Bailey-Wilson. Familial lung cancer exhibits multiple novel linked haplotypes within pedigrees [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4176.

Does prehabilitation improve outcomes in cardiac surgical patients?

A best evidence topic in cardiac surgery was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was: does prehabilitation improve outcomes in cardiac surgical patients? Altogether more than 483 papers were found using the reported search, of which 10 represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers are tabulated. Four meta-analyses concluded that prehabilitation reduced postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs). The 6 randomized controlled trials (RCT) included, differed significantly in the type of prehabilitation delivered. There was replication of some RCTs across the meta-analyses. The consensus across the meta-analyses was a reduction in PPCs and 3 of 4 meta-analyses finding a reduction in length of stay (LOS). There were no adverse events or difference in mortality found. Two small RCTs showed feasibility and modest improvements in physiological parameters. Three RCTs demonstrated a reduction in LOS and a reduction in PPCs. One RCT found no difference in quality of life scores, LOS or postoperative atrial fibrillation. None of the RCTs found negative evidence of prehabilitation interventions. We conclude that the prehabilitation is a positive preoperative intervention, most favourably in older patients and in those who are at risk of PPCs. Specifically inspiratory muscle training is the intervention with most favourable evidence.

Reference to a past learning event as a practice of informal formative assessment in L2 classroom interaction

In this study we are concerned with the informal dimension of formative assessment (FA) in an L2 classroom. We examine those instances that are embedded into everyday learning activities and that emerge in and through classroom interaction contingently, continuously and flexibly. Drawing on the methodological underpinnings of Conversation Analysis (CA), we uncover the emergence of instances of reference to a past learning event (RPLE) in L2 classroom interaction and highlights its relevance to informal FA. Data from a corpus of video-recordings of an EFL classroom in a preparatory school at tertiary level are presented. It is seen that RPLEs occur when the teacher contingently extends the main instructional activity to focus on what was presented interactionally earlier. In this way, the teacher seeks evidence of student knowledge and understanding and/or acts on the negative evidence already elicited in order to enhance learning and shape instruction. The analysis of RPLE instances also brings evidence for the relation between learning and assessment together with the tracking of language learning behaviour in subsequent learning events from the perspective of CA-SLA. As a result, this study bridges a gap between language assessment and classroom research by suggesting that teachers’ ability to informally assess for formative purposes is an integral part of their classroom interactional competence.

Speech fluency disorders in childhood and adolescence

Persistent speech fluency disorders, mostly stuttering and less frequently cluttering, occur in approximately 1% of children and adolescents. They considerably impair the social participation and quality of life of those affected. The German interdisciplinary evidence-based S3 guidelines provide information about the pathogenesis, diagnostics and treatment of speech fluency disorders and contain asystematic review on the efficacy of stuttering treatment. For preschool children the Lidcombe therapy shows the best evidence of efficacy. Strong evidence also exists for an indirect approach. For adolescents and recently for children aged 6‑12 years old there is ahigh level of evidence for speech restructuring methods, such as fluency shaping. There is weak evidence for stuttering modification procedures and for combined speech restructuring and stuttering modification approaches. Negative evidence exists for the eclectic, unspecified stuttering therapies, breathing regulation, and hypnosis, which are frequently applied in Germany. An early start of treatment is decisive.

Selective sampling and inductive inference: Drawing inferences based on observed and missing evidence

We propose and test a Bayesian model of property induction with evidence that has been selectively sampled leading to “censoring” or exclusion of potentially relevant data. A core model prediction is that identical evidence samples can lead to different patterns of inductive inference depending on the censoring mechanisms that cause some instances to be excluded. This prediction was confirmed in four experiments examining property induction following exposure to identical samples that were subject to different sampling frames. Each experiment found narrower generalization of a novel property when the sample instances were selected because they shared a common property (property sampling) than when they were selected because they belonged to the same category (category sampling). In line with model predictions, sampling frame effects were moderated by the addition of explicit negative evidence (Experiment 1), sample size (Experiment 2) and category base rates (Experiments 3–4). These data show that reasoners are sensitive to constraints on the sampling process when making property inferences; they consider both the observed evidence and the reasons why certain types of evidence has not been observed.

The (near) absence of English in Flemish dinner table conversations

AbstractThis paper studies the low frequency of English insertions in child-directed speech in eight Flemish families, which is striking considering the strong position of English in other domains in Flanders. Crossing usage-based approaches to language acquisition and language socialization research, we scrutinize our corpus of dinner table conversations that consist of over 25,000 utterances, complemented by sociolinguistic interviews with the caregivers of each family. After mining our corpus for English insertions, we present a quantitative exploration that reveals how less than 1% of the utterances per family contain English insertions. Assessing whether this result can be interpreted as parents’ attempts to socialize their children towards Dutch, and what this reveals about their language regards, we analyze selected fragments through multimodal discourse analysis. After discussing possible implications of these findings for the position of English in Flanders, we additionally discuss them against the theoretical background of developmental sociolinguistics, and against the methodological background of working with small samples and negative evidence in a usage-based approach (see e.g. negative entrenchment.

A Systematic Assessment of Anti-poverty Programmes in Nigeria

The rising poverty level in Nigeria since 1999 prompted the designing and implementation of different anti-poverty programmes to assist the poor to escape poverty. This study systematically assesses the impact of these interventions. A systematic search was conducted electronically for qualitative studies that used mixed method analysis. Inclusion criteria were met with eight studies. All the included studies used interviews as methods of data collection. Income, entrepreneurial development, expenditure, job opportunities, welfare, access to health and education, empowerment and quality of life were the domains reported by the studies reviewed. There is evidence of anti-poverty programmes in reducing poverty among poor households. There is weak evidence suggesting anti-poverty programmes have a positive impact on household expenditures, employment, income, agricultural development and the quality of life of beneficiaries. There is negative evidence showing that anti-poverty programmes not impacting on access to health and education and the affordability of health services and education. Despite the not too impressive results, anti-poverty programmes can act as tools for mitigating poverty if were planned and implemented. Key Words : Anti-poverty programmes, intervention, microcredit, Nigeria, poverty