No. 09: Comparing Household Food Security in Cities of the Global South through a Gender Lens

Understanding the determinants of urban food insecurity requires sensitivity to local cultural contexts and taking into account a globally relevant framework for analysis. A gender lens is amenable to this kind of analysis because it is rooted in local configurations of households, livelihoods and consumption patterns, while also being animated by a longstanding global effort to create a world in which men and women are equal. This discussion paper is aimed at academic researchers and development practitioners concerned with urban food insecurity. It demonstrates the usefulness of a gender lens of analysis for generating new insights and questions about household food insecurity in an international context of comparative urban research. The data used in the paper is drawn from the Hungry Cities Partnership household food security baseline surveys in Maputo and Nanjing

Best Cybersecurity Practices for Companies, Post Van Buren

Imagine this scenario: you are a small business owner, and you’ve just been informed of a network security breach. In your Zoom meeting with the IT Department, you learned the details: network activity logs revealed aberrant behavior after hours. Threat actors accessed systems containing sensitive information and downloaded copies of key files containing company trade secrets, market strategies, and customer data – all within a matter of minutes. Immediately, you review the consequences of the breach in your mind: reputational harm, monetary loss, and potential lawsuits. You ask the IT professional about the root cause of the breach. Was it a single individual or a syndicate that pulled off the hack? How did the threat actors manage to bypass the company’s firewall and network intrusion detection system

Alien Registration- Riley, Mary (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/31413/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Riley, Mary (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/31413/thumbnail.jp

Childfree couples' experiences of stereotyping, harassment and pressure

This qualitative study is about New Zealand couples who, by choice, do not have children. Strong social norms exist for couples to have children, and those who express a desire to do otherwise have been disbelieved, pressured, and stereotyped. Womanhood has continued to be associated with motherhood, and a maternal instinct is expected to drive women to have children. The aim of this research was to add to knowledge and awareness of how childfree people have experienced being stereotyped, pressured and harassed for being childfree. For this research, I conjointly interviewed ten heterosexual, childfree couples residing in the city of Hamilton. Participants self-identified as childfree, and ranged in age from 23 to 56 years old. Five of the couples also participated in a focus group. Participants related the ways in which they perceived that the wider social context played a role in the negative responses they experienced. Participants revealed how they felt less socially valued through: an idealization of parenthood, exclusion from work benefits, and an expectation that women should manage both employment and motherhood. Stereotyping was found to still occur, with participants reporting that they were labelled as selfish, immature, and anti-children. Stereotypes of being destined for loneliness in later life, and of their pets being substitutes for children were common. Some evidence was found in participants' comments that there were elements of truth in stereotypes of the childfree. The negative stereotyping appeared to have little, if any, impact on how participants viewed or felt about themselves. Participants reported feeling harassed by other people's disbelief in their choice, and assumptions, that despite what they said, everybody wanted children. The pressures experienced by participants took various forms, such as persistent questioning, and came from various sources, including siblings and acquaintances. Participants' reports of feeling pressured or harassed seem to reflect minor and fleeting feelings, rather than a continuing concern. How pressuring comments were perceived by the recipient was very context-dependent. Participants tolerated and coped with people's negative responses by various methods, such as confronting, ignoring, and avoiding the topic of children with certain people. I recommend that further research be done, and that work is needed to promote both acceptance of the childfree option, and freedom of women's identification from association with childbearing

Potential Use of Basil and Lemongrass Essential Oils Against Human Bacterial Pathogens

The increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections fuels a continuing need to find effective antimicrobial agents. Basil (Ocimum basilicum) and lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) essential oil activity against sixteen true and opportunistic human pathogenic bacterial strains was tested, including: S. aureus, S. epidermidis, B. cereus and E. aerogenes. Inhibition of microbial growth by both essential oils was determined using a Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion assay and results compared to common antibiotics. Results indicated that both essential oils possess antimicrobial compounds against select bacterial strains. Our data support phytomedicine as a plausible option to combat antibiotic resistance