Caregiver stress: a concept analysis

posterThe purpose of this concept analysis is to provide clarity on the concept of caregiver stress as it pertains to the caregiver of people with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

The role of transdisciplinarity in building a decolonial bridge between science, policy, and practice

Transdisciplinary research is considered to offer contributions of science to sustainability transformations, partly because transdisciplinary approaches aim to increase the relevance, credibility, and legitimacy of scientific research by ensuring the active participation of non-academic actors in research. However, the possible impact of transdisciplinary research on decolonial sustainability science – understood as actively undoing Euro-North American centricity, dispossession, racism, and ongoing power imbalances in inequitable social-ecological systems – and simultaneous response to scientific rigor remain under debate. Thus, this article assesses the contributions of transdisciplinary research projects to decolonial sustainability science based on empirical infor ma tion. To do so, we analyze a sample of 43 development research projects of the Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development (r4d programme) in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. We found that despite significant differences in approaches, Global-North-dominated sustainability science still has far to go to achieve the decolonial potential of transdisciplinarity, enabling different actors’ participation

L'estudi del museu de geologia d'Oruro (Bolívia)

Bolívia compta amb una de les majors riqueses mineralògiques del món (Hyršl i Petrov, 2009). Una bona representació d’elles es troba al Museo Mineralógico de la Facultad de Minas de la UTO en Oruro (Llanque, 2006; Neumeier, 2009; Petrov, 2009). La trajectòria de més de cent anys de la col∙lecció però, havia provocat que aquesta no presentavà la seva millor situació. És per això que es decideix dur a terme una catalogació, inventariat i reordenació de les mostres mineralògiques de què disposa. Per fer-ho s'utilitzen diverses tècniques d'identificació mineral, que van des de les clàssiques de visu fins a mètodes més sofisticats com l'estudi petrogràfic amb làmina prima o amb Difracció de RX. Es procedeix també a la renovació de les fitxes identificatòries i al fotografiat de les més de 3500 mostres. Amb aquesta finalitat se signa el projecte de col∙laboració entre la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (U.P.C.) i la Universidad Técnica de Oruro (U.T.O.), en què es busca una sol∙lució als problemes mencionats durant l’any 2010.Peer Reviewe

El patrimonio del museo mineralógico de la Universidad Técnica de Oruro

Bolivia goza de una de las mayores variedades mineralógicas del mundo. Una buena representación de ellas se encuentra en el Museo Mineralógico de la Facultad de Minas de la UTO en Oruro. Durante su trayectoria de más de 100 años no ha recibido un tratamiento constante de sistematización y ordenamiento. Mediante el presente trabajo se ha realizado la catalogación, inventariado y reordenación de alrededor de 3000 muestras mineralógicas que posee. Para ello se utilizan diversas técnicas de identificación mineral que van desde las clásicas de visu hasta el estudio petrográfico o la difracción de rayos x. Se procedió también a la renovación de las fichas identificativas de las muestras minerales de que dispone. Asimismo se realizaron tres paneles explicativos para colgar en el museo y aumentar el interés didáctico del mismo.Postprint (published version

Refuerzo de la clasificación de las muestras del Museo de Geología de la UTO

Bolivia posee una de las mayores riquezas mineralógicas del mundo. Una buena representación de ellas se encuentra en el Museo Mineralógico de la Facultad de Minas de la UTO en Oruro. La trayectoria de más de 100 años de la colección había provocado que esta no se encontrara en su mejor situación. Por eso se decide una catalogación, inventariado y reordenación de las muestras mineralógicas que posee. Para ello se utilizan diversas técnicas de identificación mineral que van desde las clásicas de visu hasta el estudio petrográfico con lámina delgada o Difracción de RX. Se procede también a la renovación de las fichas identificatorias y al fotografiado de las más de 3500 muestras de que dispone.Postprint (published version

Tamaño de los frutos y distribución en los distintos calibres de aceituna de la variedad Hojiblanca

Peer reviewe

A new understanding and evaluation of food sustainability in six different food systems in Kenya and Bolivia

Food systems must become more sustainable and equitable, a transformation which requires the transdisciplinary co‑production of knowledge. We present a framework of food sustainability that was co‑created by academic and non‑academic actors and comprises five dimensions: food security, right to food, environmental performance, poverty and inequality, and social‑ecological resilience. For each dimension, an interdisciplinary research team—together with actors from different food systems—defined key indicators and empirically applied them to six case studies in Kenya and Bolivia. Food sustainability scores were analysed for the food systems as a whole, for the five dimensions, and for food system activities. We then identified the indicators with the greatest influence on sustainability scores. While all food systems displayed strengths and weaknesses, local and agroecological food systems scored comparatively highly across all dimensions. Agro‑industrial food systems scored lowest in environmental performance and food security, while their resilience scores were medium to high. The lowest‑scoring dimensions were right to food, poverty and inequality, with particularly low scores obtained for the indicators women’s access to land and credit, agrobiodiversity, local food traditions, social protection, and remedies for violations of the right to food. This qualifies them as key levers for policy interventions towards food sustainability

Driving factors of forest growth: a reply to Ferry et al. (2012).

1. In a recent paper, we analysed the effects of climate, soil and logging disturbance on tree and forest growth (Toledo et al. 2011a). We took advantage of one of the largest data sets in the Neotropics, consisting of 165 1-ha plots and over 62 000 trees distributed over an area of c. 160 000 km2, across large environmental gradients in lowland Bolivia. The main findings were that climate was the strongest driver of spatial variation in tree growth, whereas soils had only a modest effect on growth and that the effect of logging disappeared after a few years. 2. Ferry (2012) suggest that we underestimated the disturbance effects on growth because of a supposedly wrong coding of Time After Logging (TAL) for unlogged plots. Although we have good biological reasons why we coded TAL like we did, we checked Ferry et al.s suggestions for recoding and found no differences in variables that significantly explained tree and forest growth. We agree, however, that for future research, it is important to go beyond simple descriptors such as time after logging and basal area logged, to better describe the variation in logging impact found in areas under forest management. 3. Ferry et al. claim that we did not define basal area growth properly. We believe this is a semantic issue, as we clearly defined basal area growth as the net change in basal area. This net basal area change in Bolivian forests is indeed relatively high compared to other studies, which may be attributed to the higher soil fertility and biogeographic differences in species composition and their traits. 4. Synthesis. Many apparent discrepancies in the ecological literature arise because tropical forest ecologists tend to see the world from the perspective of their own forest (despite clear biogeographic differences) and try to capture the same ecological processes using different variables and measurement protocols. To advance our understanding and go beyond single-case studies, we need to assemble large databases, quantify forest dynamics and disturbances in similar ways, be aware of differences among forests and analyse environmental doseresponse curves