The Need for a More Stable Cacao Industry

The cacao industry is slowly growing in the region of Bocas del Toro, Panama. It is largely populated by indigenous farmers, but there are others who have invested in the business as well. With so many people becoming involved in the industry this study aimed to determine if the system represented a stable model. Through interviews and participant observation the stability of income, steadiness of demand, opportunity for growth, and the effect of organic certification were examined to determine the overall stability. It was found that very few farmers sell only cacao and rely on the sale of other crops, to varying degrees, to supplement their incomes. Although the demand for cacao and chocolate does fluctuate, there seemed to be a steady desire for the products that the farmers were producing. There are many people beginning to farm cacao throughout the region, thus generating more supply to meet the global demand, but once they begin there is not much room for growth. There are two main cooperatives in the region that many farmers are a part of, but once that decision is made many do not have an opportunity to develop within the industry. Finally, in analyzing organic certification, I was met with conflicting opinions pertaining to its benefits and thus met with people who were strongly in favor of it and others who were not. Overall the market has several unstable factors, but there is room for improvement within the industry

Virtually legitimate: using disembodied media to position oneself in an embodied community

Previous research on capoeira suggests that face-to-face training is the ideal mode of learning this art. However, there is a robust corpus of capoeira tutorials available on YouTube. This paper asks what the function of these videos is. I analyze six comment threads taken from YouTube that exhibit a common pattern, concluding that beyond the video’s utility as a source of information, the comments shared by community insiders serve as an invitation for aspiring students to join the embodied capoeira community, paving the way for their adoption of the underlying ethos of capoeira by socializing them into the ‘anyone can do it if they work hard enough’ discourse that is common in capoeira academies. And while this discourse itself is somewhat deceptive insofar as not everyone can do all of the moves of capoeira – even if they work hard – it is actually the mediating link between technical mastery, which could theoretically be achieved from watching videos, and embodiment of capoeira’s generative grammar, which must be learned in an embodied community setting

Frailty and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on community-living middle-aged and older adults:an analysis of data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA)

BACKGROUND: frailty imparts a higher risk for hospitalisation, mortality and morbidity due to COVID-19 infection, but the broader impacts of the pandemic and associated public health measures on community-living people with frailty are less known. METHODS: we used cross-sectional data from 23,974 Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging participants who completed a COVID-19 interview (Sept-Dec 2020). Participants were included regardless of whether they had COVID-19 or not. They were asked about health, resource, relationship and health care access impacts experienced during the pandemic. Unadjusted and adjusted prevalence of impacts was estimated by frailty index quartile. We further examined if the relationship with frailty was modified by sex, age or household income. RESULTS: community-living adults (50-90 years) with greater pre-pandemic frailty reported more negative impacts during the first year of the pandemic. The frailty gradient was not explained by socio-demographic or health behaviour factors. The largest absolute difference in adjusted prevalence between the most and least frail quartiles was 15.1% (challenges accessing healthcare), 13.3% (being ill) and 7.4% (increased verbal/physical conflict). The association between frailty and healthcare access differed by age where the youngest age group tended to experience the most challenges, especially for those categorised as most frail. CONCLUSION: although frailty has been endorsed as a tool to inform estimates of COVID-19 risk, our data suggest it may have a broader role in primary care and public health by identifying people who may benefit from interventions to reduce health and social impacts of COVID-19 and future pandemics.</p

Teaching International Students: Improving Learning for All

The fourteen contributors to this edited volume put forth a powerful concept. They argue that the struggles faced by international students in the classroom can be a barometer for the rest of our students, or, as the title of the first chapter puts it, “canaries in the coal mine.” Being attuned to the needs and difficulties of international students can often be an early alert system for the rest of the class

Editorial: seeking a new 'normal'

As vaccines become more readily available and more people worldwide begin resuming ‘normal’ activities, it is a good time to reflect on the taken-for-granted aspects of ‘normal’ life. Martial arts communities are not exempt from the racism, discrimination, and inequalities that have long plagued social life. This is a good time to challenge the practices that contribute to such injustices. It is also a good time to think about what aspects of life under lockdown might be worth carrying into the future. Facing this pandemic has given rise to many innovations and acts of compassion that are worth continuing

Increased Male-Male Mounting Behaviour in Desert Locusts during Infection with an Entomopathogenic Fungus

Same-sex sexual behaviour occurs across diverse animal taxa, but adaptive explanations can be difficult to determine. Here we investigate male-male mounting (MMM) behaviour in female-deprived desert locust males infected with the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium acridum. Over a four-week period, infected locusts performed more MMM behaviours than healthy controls. Among infected locusts, the probability of MMM, and the duration of time spent MMM, significantly increased with the mounting locust?s proximity to death. In experimental trials, infected locusts were also significantly more likely than controls to attempt to mount healthy males. Therefore, we demonstrate that MMM is more frequent among infected than healthy male locusts, and propose that this may be explained by terminal reproductive effort and a lowered mate acceptance threshold in infected males. However, during experimental trials mounting attempts were more likely to be successful if the mounted locusts were experimentally manipulated to have a reduced capacity to escape. Thus, reduced escape capability resulting from infection may also contribute to the higher frequency of MMM among infected male locusts. Our data demonstrate that pathogen infection can affect same-sex sexual behaviour, and suggest that the impact of such behaviours on host and pathogen fitness will be a novel focus for future research.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Differential Fasting Plasma Glucose and Ketone Body Levels in GHRKO versus 3xTg-AD Mice: A Potential Contributor to Aging-Related Cognitive Status?

Cognitive function declines with age and appears to correlate with decreased cerebral metabolic rate (CMR). Caloric restriction, an antiaging manipulation that extends life-span and can preserve cognitive function, is associated with decreased glucose uptake, decreased lactate levels, and increased ketone body (KB) levels in the brain. Since the majority of brain nutrients come from the periphery, this study examined whether the capacity to regulate peripheral glucose levels and KB production differs in animals with successful cognitive aging (growth hormone receptor knockouts, GHRKOs) versus unsuccessful cognitive aging (the 3xTg-AD mouse model of Alzheimer\u27s disease). Animals were fasted for 5 hours with their plasma glucose and KB levels subsequently measured. Intriguingly, in GHRKO mice, compared to those in controls, fasting plasma glucose levels were significantly decreased while their KB levels were significantly increased. Conversely, 3xTg-AD mice, compared to controls, exhibited significantly elevated plasma glucose levels and significantly reduced plasma KB levels. Taken together, these results suggest that the capacity to provide the brain with KBs versus glucose throughout an animal\u27s life could somehow help preserve cognitive function with age, potentially through minimizing overall brain exposure to reactive oxygen species and advanced glycation end products and improving mitochondrial function

Dose-dependent behavioural fever responses in desert locusts challenged with the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium acridum

Abstract Behavioural fever is a common response to immune challenge in ectotherms and confers survival benefits. However, costs accrue rapidly as body temperature rises. Thus, the magnitude of adaptive fever responses might reflect the balance of costs and benefits. We investigated behavioural fever in desert locusts, Schistocerca gregaria, infected with the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium acridum. We first tracked the time course of behavioural fever in infected locusts, demonstrating that body temperatures rose on the day following inoculation (day 1), and reached peak intensity on the day after that (day 2). Subsequently, the magnitude of fever responses varied during a day, and locusts tended to exhibit high-intensity fever responses in the mornings when basking was first possible. We speculate that this may have resulted from increased fungal load caused by unimpeded growth overnight when locusts could not fever. We next inoculated locusts with different M. acridum doses ranging from 0 to ca. 75,000 conidia. The magnitude of their behavioural fever responses on day 2 post-inoculation was positively related to fungal dose. Thus, we demonstrate dose-dependency in the behavioural fever responses of desert locusts and suggest that this may reflect the adaptive deployment of behavioural fever to minimize costs relative to benefits

A Deterioration in Hearing is Associated With Functional and Cognitive Impairments, Difficulty With Communication and Greater Health Instability

Objectives: To examine the relationship between hearing deterioration and several health-related outcomes among home care clients in Ontario. Design: Longitudinal analysis was completed for clients with at least two comprehensive assessments. Hearing status, based on a single item, ranged from zero (no impairment) to three (highly impaired). Hearing deterioration was defined as at least a 1-point decline between subsequent assessments. Results: Seven percent experienced a 1-point deterioration in hearing and roughly 1% had a 2/3-point decline. After adjusting for other covariates, increasing age (odds ratio = 1.94; 95% confidence intervals [CIs] = [1.45, 2.61]) and a diagnosis of Alzheimer\u27s disease (1.37; CI = [1.04, 1.80]) and other dementias (1.32; CI = [1.07, 1.63]) increased the risk of a 2/3-point deterioration. Conclusion: These findings can assist home care professionals and policy makers in creating and refining interventions to meet the needs of older adults with hearing difficulties