268 research outputs found
Perspectives of wild medicine harvesters from Cape Town, South Africa
Cape Town is a fast-growing cityscape in the Cape Floristic Region in South Africa with 24 formally
protected conservation areas including the World Heritage Table Mountain National Park. These sites
have been protected and managed as critical sites for local biodiversity, representing potentially one-third
of all Cape Floristic Region flora species and 18% of South Africaâs plant diversity. Cape Town is also
inhabited by a rapidly growing culturally and economically diverse citizenry with distinct and potentially
conflicting perspectives on access to, and management of, local natural resources. In a qualitative study
of 58 locally resident traditional healers of distinct cultural groups, we examined motivations underlying
the generally illicit activity of harvesting of wild resources from Cape Town protected areas. Resource
harvester motivations primarily link to local economic survival, health care and cultural links to particular
resources and practices, âaccess for allâ outlooks, and wholesale profit-seeking perspectives. We
describe these motivations, contrast them with the current formal, legal and institutional perspectives for
biodiversity protection in the city, and propose managerial interventions that may improve sustainability
of ongoing harvest activities
Implementing value chain analysis to investigate drivers and sustainability of Cape Town's informal economy of wild-harvested traditional medicine
Despite a highly visible presence, policy-maker knowledge of the drivers and
participants in the informal economy of wild-harvested medicinal plants in Cape
Town remains limited. To illuminate the workings of this local cultural business
activity, the researchers adopted value chain analysis (VCA) for dissecting harvesting,
trading and consumer demand in the trade. The study included qualitative, openended interviews with 58 traditional healers and a quantitative consumer study of 235
township households. Cape Townâs traditional healers are numerous and potentially
more uniquely culturally diverse than elsewhere, serving various community health
needs. Healer groups enhance their healing reputation by utilising wild-sourced
medicines â much of which is harvested locally. Their services remain culturally
important and utilised by at least 50% of all consumer respondents. The VCA
revealed a universal healer and consumer requirement for wild medicine stocks which
has considerable implications for policy-making, protected area management and
traditional medicine-oriented conservation projects
Strong CP violation and the neutron electric dipole form factor
We calculate the neutron electric dipole form factor induced by the CP
violating theta-term of QCD, within a perturbative chiral quark model which
includes pion and kaon clouds. On this basis we derive the neutron electric
dipole moment and the electron-neutron Schiff moment. From the existing
experimental upper limits on the neutron electric dipole moment we extract
constraints on the theta-parameter and compare our results with other
approaches.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Atom. Nuc
Learning in large learning spaces:the academic engagement of a diverse group of students
Teaching larger groups of students is a growing phenomenon in HE and this brings with it, its own challenges not least for the students themselves but also their lecturers. Demographic factors as well as the experiences that characterise us as individuals will impact upon our ability to learn. The pilot study reported here considered the âacademic engagementâ of a diverse group of students where their course is delivered in large learning environments. As a pilot study, the paper concludes with the identification of two areas which are worthy of further research. Firstly, the study highlighted that mature students were more likely to engage in learning strategies that are associated with surface learning â the binary opposite to which practitioners often strive to achieve. Secondly, the research suggests that students who appear to know their tutors well indicate a preference for study approaches that are likely to develop deeper learning
Activity and Habitat Use of Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in the Anthropogenic Landscape of Bossou, Guinea, West Africa
Many primate populations inhabit anthropogenic landscapes. Understanding their long-term ability to persist in such environments and associated real and perceived risks for both primates and people is essential for effective conservation planning. Primates in forestâagricultural mosaics often consume cultivars to supplement their diet, leading to potentially negative encounters with farmers. When crossing roads, primates also face the risk of encounters with people and collision with vehicles. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Bossou, Guinea, West Africa, face such risks regularly. In this study, we aimed to examine their activity budget across habitat types and the influence of anthropogenic risks associated with cultivated fields, roads, and paths on their foraging behavior in noncultivated habitat. We conducted 6-h morning or afternoon follows daily from April 2012 to March 2013. Chimpanzees preferentially used forest habitat types for traveling and resting and highly disturbed habitat types for socializing. Wild fruit and crop availability influenced seasonal habitat use for foraging. Overall, chimpanzees preferred mature forest for all activities. They showed a significant preference for foraging at >200 m from cultivated fields compared to 0â100 m and 101â200 m, with no effect of habitat type or season, suggesting an influence of associated risk. Nevertheless, the chimpanzees did not actively avoid foraging close to roads and paths. Our study reveals chimpanzee reliance on different habitat types and the influence of human-induced pressures on their activities. Such information is critical for the establishment of effective land use management strategies in anthropogenic landscapes
Raiders of the Lost Bark: Orangutan Foraging Strategies in a Degraded Landscape
Deforestation is rapidly transforming primary forests across the tropics into human-dominated landscapes. Consequently, conservationists need to understand how different taxa respond and adapt to these changes in order to develop appropriate management strategies. Our two year study seeks to determine how wild Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) adapt to living in an isolated agroforest landscape by investigating the sex of crop-raiders related to population demographics, and their temporal variations in feeding behaviour and dietary composition. From focal animal sampling we found that nine identified females raided cultivated fruits more than the four males. Seasonal adaptations were shown through orangutan feeding habits that shifted from being predominantly fruit-based (56% of the total feeding time, then 22% on bark) to the fallback food of bark (44%, then 35% on fruits), when key cultivated resources such as jackfruit (Artocarpus integer), were unavailable. Cultivated fruits were mostly consumed in the afternoon and evening, when farmers had returned home. The finding that females take greater crop-raiding risks than males differs from previous human-primate conflict studies, probably because of the low risks associated (as farmers rarely retaliated) and low intraspecific competition between males. Thus, the behavioral ecology of orangutans living in this human-dominated landscape differs markedly from that in primary forest, where orangutans have a strictly wild food diet, even where primary rainforests directly borders farmland. The importance of wild food availability was clearly illustrated in this study with 21% of the total orangutan feeding time being allocated to feeding on cultivated fruits. As forests are increasingly converted to cultivation, humans and orangutans are predicted to come into conflict more frequently. This study reveals orangutan adaptations for coexisting with humans, e.g. changes in temporal foraging patterns, which should be used for guiding the development of specific human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategies to lessen future crop-raiding and conflicts
P-odd and CP-odd Four-Quark Contributions to Neutron EDM
In a class of beyond-standard-model theories, CP-odd observables, such as the
neutron electric dipole moment, receive significant contributions from
flavor-neutral P-odd and CP-odd four-quark operators. However, considerable
uncertainties exist in the hadronic matrix elements of these operators strongly
affecting the experimental constraints on CP-violating parameters in the
theories. Here we study their hadronic matrix elements in combined chiral
perturbation theory and nucleon models. We first classify the operators in
chiral representations and present the leading-order QCD evolutions. We then
match the four-quark operators to the corresponding ones in chiral hadronic
theory, finding symmetry relations among the matrix elements. Although this
makes lattice QCD calculations feasible, we choose to estimate the
non-perturbative matching coefficients in simple quark models. We finally
compare the results for the neutron electric dipole moment and P-odd and CP-odd
pion-nucleon couplings with the previous studies using naive factorization and
QCD sum rules. Our study shall provide valuable insights on the present
hadronic physics uncertainties in these observables.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures. This is the final version. A discussion of the
uncertainty of the calculation is adde
Chimpanzees Share Forbidden Fruit
The sharing of wild plant foods is infrequent in chimpanzees, but in chimpanzee communities that engage in hunting, meat is frequently used as a âsocial toolâ for nurturing alliances and social bonds. Here we report the only recorded example of regular sharing of plant foods by unrelated, non-provisioned wild chimpanzees, and the contexts in which these sharing behaviours occur. From direct observations, adult chimpanzees at Bossou (Republic of Guinea, West Africa) very rarely transferred wild plant foods. In contrast, they shared cultivated plant foods much more frequently (58 out of 59 food sharing events). Sharing primarily consists of adult males allowing reproductively cycling females to take food that they possess. We propose that hypotheses focussing on âfood-for-sex and -groomingâ and âshowing-offâ strategies plausibly account for observed sharing behaviours. A changing human-dominated landscape presents chimpanzees with fresh challenges, and our observations suggest that crop-raiding provides adult male chimpanzees at Bossou with highly desirable food commodities that may be traded for other currencies
Facilitating Learning in Large Lecture Classes: Testing the âTeaching Teamâ Approach to Peer Learning
We tested the effect of voluntary peer-facilitated study groups on student learning in large introductory biology lecture classes. The peer facilitators (preceptors) were trained as part of a Teaching Team (faculty, graduate assistants, and preceptors) by faculty and Learning Center staff. Each preceptor offered one weekly study group to all students in the class. All individual study groups were similar in that they applied active-learning strategies to the class material, but they differed in the actual topics or questions discussed, which were chosen by the individual study groups. Study group participation was correlated with reduced failing grades and course dropout rates in both semesters, and participants scored better on the final exam and earned higher course grades than nonparticipants. In the spring semester the higher scores were clearly due to a significant study group effect beyond ability (grade point average). In contrast, the fall study groups had a small but nonsignificant effect after accounting for student ability. We discuss the differences between the two semesters and offer suggestions on how to implement teaching teams to optimize learning outcomes, including student feedback on study groups
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