Assessing the potential for food-based strategies to reduce Vitamin A and iron deficiencies

This paper reviews current knowledge and experience with food-based approaches to reduce vitamin A and iron deficiencies. It presents a review of recently published literature, highlights some of the lessons learned, and identifies knowledge gaps and research priorities. Plant breeding strategies are also discussed because of their potential to increase the content of vitamin A and iron in the diet as well as their bioavailability. populations. The same question as that posed in previous reviews decades ago remains at the end of the present review: what really can be achieved with food-based interventions to control vitamin A and iron deficiency? Food based approaches could be an essential part of the long-termglobal strategy to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies but their real potential is still to be explored.Minerals in human nutrition. ,Nutrition. ,Plant breeding. ,

Does urban agriculture help prevent malnutrition?

Previous research has suggested that urban agriculture has a positive impact on the household food security and nutritional status of low-socioeconomic status groups in cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, but a formal test of the link between semisubsistence urban food production and nutritional status has not accompanied these claims. This paper seeks to redress this gap in the growing literature on urban agriculture through an analysis of the determinants of the nutritional status of children under five in Kampala, Uganda, where roughly one-third of all households in the sample engage in some form of urban agriculture. When controlling for other individual child, maternal, and household characteristics, these data indicate that urban agriculture has a positive, significant association with higher nutritional status of children, particularly height-for-age. Several pathways by which this relationship is manifested are suggested, and the implications of these results for urban food and nutrition policy and urban management are briefly discussed.Food policies. ,Urban agriculture. ,Food security Household. ,Children Nutrition. ,Nutritional status ,

Building the capacity to use research in education requires a sustained strategic and systemic effort

The English education context offers positive elements and challenges for evidence-informed policy and practice. The issues are well understood but Carol Campbell and Ben Levin argue there is a lack of a strategic approach to improving knowledge mobilisation in the sector. Renewed attention is needed to build such capacities if schools are to benefit from the findings of high quality research

USDA PERSPECTIVE ON THE OUTLOOK FOR COTTON

Crop Production/Industries,

A Thermodynamic Interpretation of Time for Superstring Rolling Tachyons

Rolling tachyon backgrounds, arising from open strings on unstable branes in bosonic string theory, can be related to a simple statistical mechanical model - Coulomb gas of point charges in two dimensions confined to a circle, the Dyson gas. In this letter we describe a statistical system that is dual to non-BPS branes in superstring theory. We argue that even though the concept of time is absent in the statistical dual sitting at equilibrium, the notion of time can emerge at the large number of particles $N \to \infty$ limit.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, v2: reference added, v3: minor clarification, version to appear in journa

Cultivating nutrition

"Over the past decade, donor-funded policies and programs designed to address undernutrition in the Global South have shifted away from agriculture-based strategies toward nutrient supplementation and food fortification programs. Given the potential benefits resulting from agriculture-based nutrition interventions, this study uses Q methodology to explore the views of a range of stakeholders from both developed and developing countries on the value of—and constraints related to—gender-sensitive, nutrition-oriented agricultural projects. The three distinct viewpoints that emerge from this exercise all support the use of agricultural strategies to improve nutrition and underline the importance of gender-sensitive approaches. The viewpoints differ, however, on the relative importance of nutrition education, the strategic use of nutrient supplementation and food fortification, and the degree to which agriculture-based approaches have an impact on nutrition. The findings indicate that there is common ground among a range of stakeholders—donors, researchers, policymakers, and program practitioners—on the benefits of agriculture and gender-sensitive strategies to improve nutrition. These areas of agreement can serve as a foundation for forging an effective integrative strategy to improve nutrition that includes gender-sensitive agricultural approaches." Authors' AbstractNutrition ,malnutrition ,Agriculture ,stakeholders ,Gender ,

Cultivating nutrition

"Over the past decade, donor-funded policies and programs designed to address undernutrition in the Global South have shifted away from agriculture-based strategies toward nutrient supplementation and food fortification programs. Given the potential benefits resulting from agriculture-based nutrition interventions, this study uses Q methodology to explore the views of a range of stakeholders from both developed and developing countries on the value of—and constraints related to—gender-sensitive, nutrition-oriented agricultural projects. The three distinct viewpoints that emerge from this exercise all support the use of agricultural strategies to improve nutrition and underline the importance of gender-sensitive approaches. The viewpoints differ, however, on the relative importance of nutrition education, the strategic use of nutrient supplementation and food fortification, and the degree to which agriculture-based approaches have an impact on nutrition. The findings indicate that there is common ground among a range of stakeholders—donors, researchers, policymakers, and program practitioners—on the benefits of agriculture and gender-sensitive strategies to improve nutrition. These areas of agreement can serve as a foundation for forging an effective integrative strategy to improve nutrition that includes gender-sensitive agricultural approaches." Authors' AbstractNutrition ,malnutrition ,Agriculture ,stakeholders ,Gender ,