Determination of vitamin B-6 and pyridoxine-glucoside in selected Malawi foods and the effect of preparation techniques on vitamin B-6 and pyridoxine-glucoside content

There were two main purposes to this study. The first was to determine the vitamin B-6 and pyridoxine β-glucoside content of selected foods commonly consumed in Malawi. The second was to examine the effect of preparation procedures of foods in Malawi on the content of vitamin B-6 and pyridoxine β- glucoside in foods. Seventeen plant foods commonly eaten in Malawi were determined for vitamin B-6 and pyridoxine β-glucoside using a microbiological assay. In addition, two commercial weaning foods, roasted maize-soy bean blend and extruded maize-soy bean blend, were also determined for vitamin B-6 and pyridoxine β-glucoside contents. Among all the foods analyzed, whole maize flour contained the highest amount of vitamin B-6 (0.66 mg/100 g), therefore, an excellent source of vitamin B-6 content in foods. Cooking decreased vitamin B-6 in pinto beans, kidney beans, sugar beans and cow peas by 34%, 45%, 14% and 48%, respectively. Roasting decreased vitamin B-6 in chick peas and soy beans by 59% and 38%, respectively. Soaking and fermentation reduced vitamin B-6 in soaked maize flour and cassava flour by 86% and 89 %, respectively. Therefore, these data suggest that some of the preparation procedures practiced in Malawi have a negative impact on the vitamin B-6 content of the processed foods. Cooked and roasted foods contained lower total amount of pyridoxine-glucoside than that of the raw food. The high pyridoxine β-glucoside content have adverse impact on the bioavailability of vitamin B-6 content. Based on typical diets for the urban and rural populations in Malawi, the rural diet contained less vitamin B-6 compared to that of urban diet. Therefore, the rural population may be at risk of inadequate vitamin B-6 intake compared to the urban population

Inserting rights and justice into urban resilience : a focus on everyday risk

Resilience building has become a growing policy agenda, particularly for urban risk management. While much of the resilience agenda has been shaped by policies and discourses from the global North, its applicability for cities of the global south, particularly African cities, has not been sufficiently assessed. Focusing on rights of urban citizens as the object to be made resilient, rather than physical and ecological infrastructures, may help to address many of the root causes that characterize the unacceptable risks that urban residents face on a daily basis. Linked to this idea, we discuss four entry points for grounding a rights and justice orientation for urban resilience. First, notions of resilience must move away from narrow, financially-orientated risk analyses. Second, opportunities must be created for “negotiated resilience”, to allow for attention to processes that support these goals, as well as for the integration of diverse interests. Third, achieving resilience in ways that do justice to the local realities of diverse urban contexts necessitates taking into account endogenous, locally situated processes, knowledges and norms. And finally, urban resilience needs to be placed within the context of global systems, providing an opportunity for African contributions to help reimagine the role that cities might play in these global finance, politics and science processes

How does neopatrimonialism affect the African state? The case of tax collection in Zambia

Following the neopatrimonialism paradigm, it can be hypothesised that in African states informal politics of the rulers infringe on the collection of taxes and in turn reduce state revenue. This article tests this proposition for the case of Zambia. Neopatrimonial continuity in the country is evidenced by three factors : the concentration of political power, the award of personal favours, and the misuse of state resources. Despite this continuity, the revenue performance increased considerably with the creation of the semi-autonomous Zambia Revenue Authority. Donor pressure has been the most important intervening variable accounting for this improvement. Yet, strengthening the collection of central state revenue has been consistent with a neopatrimonial rationale, and may even have fed neopatrimonialism overall, by providing increased resources for particularistic expenditure

Testing a global standard for quantifying species recovery and assessing conservation impact.

Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a "Green List of Species" (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species' progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 separate but interlinked components: a standardized method (i.e., measurement against benchmarks of species' viability, functionality, and preimpact distribution) to determine current species recovery status (herein species recovery score) and application of that method to estimate past and potential future impacts of conservation based on 4 metrics (conservation legacy, conservation dependence, conservation gain, and recovery potential). We tested the framework with 181 species representing diverse taxa, life histories, biomes, and IUCN Red List categories (extinction risk). Based on the observed distribution of species' recovery scores, we propose the following species recovery categories: fully recovered, slightly depleted, moderately depleted, largely depleted, critically depleted, extinct in the wild, and indeterminate. Fifty-nine percent of tested species were considered largely or critically depleted. Although there was a negative relationship between extinction risk and species recovery score, variation was considerable. Some species in lower risk categories were assessed as farther from recovery than those at higher risk. This emphasizes that species recovery is conceptually different from extinction risk and reinforces the utility of the IUCN Green Status of Species to more fully understand species conservation status. Although extinction risk did not predict conservation legacy, conservation dependence, or conservation gain, it was positively correlated with recovery potential. Only 1.7% of tested species were categorized as zero across all 4 of these conservation impact metrics, indicating that conservation has, or will, play a role in improving or maintaining species status for the vast majority of these species. Based on our results, we devised an updated assessment framework that introduces the option of using a dynamic baseline to assess future impacts of conservation over the short term to avoid misleading results which were generated in a small number of cases, and redefines short term as 10 years to better align with conservation planning. These changes are reflected in the IUCN Green Status of Species Standard