Agro-biodiversity in national pathways for food system transformation: case of West Africa

The challenges relating to biodiversity loss, food insecurity and climate change show the urgent need to make transition towards sustainable food systems in West Africa. To bring about such a transition worldwide, the United Nations’ Food Systems Summit was held in September 2021. One of the main outcomes of the Summit was the national pathways to sustainable food systems. This review analyses whether and how agro-biodiversity is addressed in the food system transformation pathways submitted by West African countries in the framework of the Summit. The content analysis suggests that agro-biodiversity is not a central topic in the national transformation pathways. In fact, it is completely overlooked in some pathways documents, and rather marginal in others. Some national documents (cf. Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria) refer to the promotion of the diversity of crops and farm animals as a means of adapting to climate change, improving livelihoods and diversifying diets thus contributing to nutrition security. Moreover, only a few measures and actions dealing with the valorisation of the neglected and underutilised species (NUS) and traditional crop varieties are included in the national transformation pathways (cf. Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone). The conservation, management and restoration of agro-biodiversity and agro-ecosystems are crucial to boost the transition towards nature-positive food systems in the region. Therefore, a paradigm change is needed in policy, research and practice to conserve the natural resource base and contribute to sustainable development by addressing, inter alia, food insecurity and malnutrition, rural poverty and climate change challenges

Conflict transformation and history teaching: social psychological theory and its contributions

The aim of this introductory chapter is to render intelligible how history teaching can be enriched with knowledge of social psychological theories that deal with the issue of conflict transformation and partcularly the notions of prejudice reduction and reconciliation. A major aim of history teaching is to engage students with historical texts, establish historical significance, identify continuity and change, analyse cause and consequence, take historical perspectives and understand the ethical dimensions of historical interpretations. Such teaching, enriched with social psychological theory, will enlarge the notion of historical literacy into a study of historical culture and historical consciousness in the classroom so that students become reflective of the role of collective memory and history teaching in processes of conflict transformation and understand the ways in which various forms of historical consciousness relate the past, present and future. This is what the editors of this volume call an interdisciplinary paradigm of transformative history teachin

Facilitate Insight by Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation

Our experiences can blind us. Once we have learned to solve problems by one method, we often have difficulties in generating solutions involving a different kind of insight. Yet there is evidence that people with brain lesions are sometimes more resistant to this so-called mental set effect. This inspired us to investigate whether the mental set effect can be reduced by non-invasive brain stimulation. 60 healthy right-handed participants were asked to take an insight problem solving task while receiving transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the anterior temporal lobes (ATL). Only 20% of participants solved an insight problem with sham stimulation (control), whereas 3 times as many participants did so (p = 0.011) with cathodal stimulation (decreased excitability) of the left ATL together with anodal stimulation (increased excitability) of the right ATL. We found hemispheric differences in that a stimulation montage involving the opposite polarities did not facilitate performance. Our findings are consistent with the theory that inhibition to the left ATL can lead to a cognitive style that is less influenced by mental templates and that the right ATL may be associated with insight or novel meaning. Further studies including neurophysiological imaging are needed to elucidate the specific mechanisms leading to the enhancement

when history teaching turns into parrhesia the case of italian colonial crimes

The aim of this chapter was to highlight the importance and the consequentiality of a specific kind of history education that happens when teachers decide to openly narrate to their students the crimes committed by previous generations of their own group—crimes so far kept silenced and literally denied in the general social discourse. According to Foucault's categorization of different kinds of truth's speaking, we propose to call parrhesia this history teaching. After reviewing theoretical stances on consequences expected for young people receiving this kind of history education, empirical evidence is discussed referring to recent researches conducted on chosen case studies. Data suggest that knowledge conveyed by parrhesiastic historical teaching on previously silenced ingroup crimes allow young students to morally distance themselves from wrongdoings of older generations

Seasonal variations in pore water and sediment geochemistry of littoral lake sediments (Asylum Lake, MI, USA)

BACKGROUND: Seasonal changes in pore water and sediment redox geochemistry have been observed in many near-surface sediments. Such changes have the potential to strongly influence trace metal distribution and thus create seasonal fluctuations in metal mobility and bioavailability. RESULTS: Seasonal trends in pore water and sediment geochemistry are assessed in the upper 50 cm of littoral kettle lake sediments. Pore waters are always redox stratified, with the least compressed redox stratification observed during fall and the most compressed redox stratification observed during summer. A 2-step sequential sediment extraction yields much more Fe in the first step, targeted at amorphous Fe(III) (hydr)oxides (AEF), then in the second step, which targets Fe(II) monosulfides. Fe extracted in the second step is relatively invariant with depth or season. In contrast, AEF decreases with sediment depth, and is seasonally variable, in agreement with changes in redox stratification inferred from pore water profiles. A 5-step Tessier extraction scheme was used to assess metal association with operationally-defined exchangeable, carbonate, iron and manganese oxide (FMO), organic/sulfide and microwave-digestible residual fractions in cores collected during winter and spring. Distribution of metals in these two seasons is similar. Co, As, Cd, and U concentrations approach detection limits. Fe, Cu and Pb are mostly associated with the organics/sulfides fraction. Cr and Zn are mostly associated with FMO. Mn is primarily associated with carbonates, and Co is nearly equally distributed between the FMO and organics/sulfide fractions. CONCLUSION: This study clearly demonstrates that near-surface lake sediment pore water redox stratification and associated solid phase geochemistry vary significantly with season. This has important ramifications for seasonal changes in the bioavailability and mobility of trace elements. Without rate measurements, it is not possible to quantify the contribution of various processes to natural organic matter degradation. However, the pore water and solid phase data suggest that iron reduction and sulfate reduction are the dominant pathways in the upper 50 cm of these sediments

Nations within a nation: variations in epidemiological transition across the states of India, 1990–2016 in the Global Burden of Disease Study

18% of the world's population lives in India, and many states of India have populations similar to those of large countries. Action to effectively improve population health in India requires availability of reliable and comprehensive state-level estimates of disease burden and risk factors over time. Such comprehensive estimates have not been available so far for all major diseases and risk factors. Thus, we aimed to estimate the disease burden and risk factors in every state of India as part of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2016

Putting ourselves in another’s skin: using the plasticity of self-perception to enhance empathy and decrease prejudice

The self is one the most important concepts in social cognition and plays a crucial role in determining questions such as which social groups we view ourselves as belonging to and how we relate to others. In the past decade, the self has also become an important topic within cognitive neuroscience with an explosion in the number of studies seeking to understand how different aspects of the self are represented within the brain. In this paper, we first outline the recent research on the neurocognitive basis of the self and highlight a key distinction between two forms of self-representation. The first is the “bodily” self, which is thought to be the basis of subjective experience and is grounded in the processing of sensorimotor signals. The second is the “conceptual” self, which develops through our interactions of other and is formed of a rich network of associative and semantic information. We then investigate how both the bodily and conceptual self are related to social cognition with an emphasis on how self-representations are involved in the processing and creation of prejudice. We then highlight new research demonstrating that the bodily and conceptual self are both malleable and that this malleability can be harnessed in order to achieve a reduction in social prejudice. In particular, we will outline strong evidence that modulating people’s perceptions of the bodily self can lead to changes in attitudes at the conceptual level. We will highlight a series of studies demonstrating that social attitudes towards various social out-groups (e.g. racial groups) can lead to a reduction in prejudice towards that group. Finally, we seek to place these findings in a broader social context by considering how innovations in virtual reality technology can allow experiences of taking on another’s identity are likely to become both more commonplace and more convincing in the future and the various opportunities and risks associated with using such technology to reduce prejudice

Information and communication technologies for smart and sustainable agriculture

Agriculture faces different environmental, economic and social challenges that make the case for transition towards sustainability. Digitization is one of the most significant ongoing transformation processes in global agriculture. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) range from traditional communication aids (e.g. telephones, televisions), internet and mobile applications, to Big Data analytics and information systems, Cloud computing, Internet of Things, remote sensing and drones, blockchain and artificial intelligence. Different terms have been used to refer to the application of ICTs in agriculture e.g. digital agriculture, e-agriculture, smart agriculture, precision agriculture. This review paper analyses the potential of ICT in agricultural sector. In particular, it explores the benefits of ICT in terms of agriculture smartness and sustainability, provides an overview on the main technologies used, delineates the contours of the smart farming market and landscape, and analyses the potential drawbacks of such a ‘digital revolution’ in agriculture. Smart agriculture is presented by some scholars and practitioners as the ‘Third Green Revolution’, after the plant breeding and genetics revolutions. It is widely recognised that ICTs can help reducing inefficiencies, increasing resource productivity, decreasing management costs, and improving traceability and transparency. However, some caution is needed to make the ongoing ‘digital revolution’ in agriculture inclusive for small-scale farmers and women, especially in developing countries. Moreover, some threats and challenges relating to digital and smart technologies need to be appropriately addressed through policies to support the development of the necessary market and legal architecture for ICT and smart farming, with due consideration to ethical questions

Food security and nutrition in agro-food sustainability transitions

Food and nutrition security is the main outcome of a sustainable food system. However, food insecurity and malnutrition still affect half of the global population. This is a symptom of the dysfunction of the food system and highlights the urgent need for transition toward sustainability. This chapter reviews research on agro-food sustainability transitions and analyzes whether and how it addresses food security and nutrition. It also casts light on pathways for transition toward sustainable food systems (viz., efficiency increase, demand restraint, and food system transformation). It is assumed that agro-food sustainability transition affects the four dimensions of food security (i.e. availability, access, utilization, stability) and implies changes in nutrition practices and dietary patterns. Nonetheless, food security and nutrition are marginal in the literature dealing with food sustainability transitions. This chapter makes the case for fostering integration of agro-food sustainability transitions and food security not only in research but also in policy and practice