Which variables influence farmer adoption of genetically modified orphan crops? Measuring attitudes and intentions to adopt gm matooke banana in Uganda

Which farmers are most likely to adopt genetically modified (GM) versions of African carbohydrate staples (also known as orphan crops)? This study investigates the variables that determine attitudes and intentions to adopt matooke banana in Uganda. Participatory ranking exercises undertaken with 167 randomly selected farmers and focus groups consisting of an additional 94 farmers suggest that attitudes and potential patterns of adoption will vary significantly according to region, farm size, membership in a farmer's association, previous experience with improved varieties and visits from extension workers. This research underscores the potential differentiated impacts of the commercialization of GM crops among African farmers

Can SoTL Generate High Quality Research while Maintaining its Commitment to Inclusivity?

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) faces an emerging challenge as it seeks to balance commitments to disciplinary inclusivity and scholarly quality. We undertake a scoping review of 64 articles across three leading SoTL journals to investigate how the literature balances these twin commitments by exploring what questions are being asked, what methods are being used, and how these may be impacting the inferences that are being made within that scholarship. We advocate for a more focused definition of SoTL that can help reinforce its legitimacy within institutional power structures of scholarship, and for partnerships across disciplinary boundaries to be a central pillar of SoTL that is both high quality and disciplinarily inclusive

Governing Agricultural Biotechnologies in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany: A Trans-decadal Study of Regulatory Cultures

Comparative studies of agricultural biotechnology regulation have highlighted differences in the roles that science and politics play in decision-making. Drawing on documentary and interview evidence in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, we consider how the "regulatory cultures" that guided national responses to earlier generations of agricultural biotechnology have developed, alongside the emergence of genome editing in food crops. We find that aspects of the "product-based" regulatory approach have largely been maintained in US biosafety frameworks and that the British and German approaches have at different stages combined "process-based" and "programmatic" elements that address the scientific and sociopolitical novelty of genome editing to varying degrees. We seek to explain these patterns of stability and change by exploring how changing opportunity structures in each jurisdiction have enabled or constrained public reasoning around emerging agricultural biotechnologies. By showing how opportunity structures and regulatory cultures interact over the long-term, we provide insights that help us to interpret current and evolving dynamics in the governance of genome editing and the longer-term development of agricultural biotechnology

JWST Near-Infrared Detectors: Latest Test Results

The James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared-optimized space telescope being developed by NASA for launch in 2013, will utilize cutting-edge detector technology in its investigation of fundamental questions in astrophysics. JWST's near infrared spectrograph, NIRSpec utilizes two 2048 x 2048 HdCdTe arrays with Sidecar ASIC readout electronics developed by Teledyne to provide spectral coverage from 0.6 microns to 5 microns. We present recent test and calibration results for the NIRSpec flight arrays as well as data processing routines for noise reduction and cosmic ray rejection

2018 Research & Innovation Day Program

A one day showcase of applied research, social innovation, scholarship projects and activities.https://first.fanshawec.ca/cri_cripublications/1005/thumbnail.jp

Lowveld cotton : a political ecology of agricultural failure in Natal and Zululand, 1844-1948

This dissertation is a study of agricultural failure. It follows the efforts of settlers, then scientists, to impose cotton as a commodity crop in the eastern region of South Africa, known today as KwaZulu-Natal. Touted as a commodity crop capable of remaking land and life in this region in the 1850s, the 1860s, at the turn of the century, and again in the 1930s, cotton never achieved more than marginal status in the agricultural economy. Its story is one of historical amnesia: although faith in the region’s cotton prospects dipped following each spectacular failure, it was routinely resurrected once previous failures had been accounted for, or memories of them had faded. Two crucial issues are at the centre of this episodic history. First, I explore the enthusiasms that underpinned successive efforts to introduce cotton, the logistics of planned expansion, and the reasons for the repeated collapse of cotton-growing schemes. My primary argument is that cotton failed because colonists lacked the technology to overcome natural constraints to production, in the form of temperature, rainfall, soils and insect pests. Settlers and scientists could not remake the land, the climate, or the cotton plant to meet their needs or realize their dreams. They attempted to overcome obstacles to production through settlement schemes, new agricultural inputs, and breeding technologies, but were unable to conquer the ecological incompatibilities between theoretical ambition and practical cultivation. This dissertation stresses the limits of colonial agriculture when confronted with unsuitable growing conditions. Second, I aim to unravel the side effects of the repeated failures of cotton production in Natal and Zululand. I turn the question of agricultural failure on its head to ask what was achieved through these repeated attempts to develop cotton as a commodity crop. I concentrate on the outcomes of these difficult and disappointing efforts at cotton cultivation – increased settler presence, stronger delineation between settler and African space, expanded state control into rural areas – and argue that, despite repeated failure, cotton facilitated important structural changes to the region’s agricultural, political and economic landscape.Arts, Faculty ofGeography, Department ofGraduat

Bridging the Gap between the Research Ethics Board and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

In 2016, Dalhousie University’s Research Ethics Board created an interdisciplinary working group to identify the key ethical challenges of SoTL research, with the overarching aim of recommending best practices and communicating these to researchers in order to support and expand the conduct of ethically sound SoTL research. This essay reflects on the lessons learned through this process and shines a light on the three most contentious arenas that emerged: using class time to conduct SoTL research, integrating Students Ratings of Instruction (SRI) into SoTL, and incorporating student work as a data source. This essay contributes to the emerging conversation around ethical SoTL research in two important ways. First, we argue for more lenient REB protocols that encourage SoTL research by exposing how restrictive interpretations of key issues serve as obstacles for student-centered research. Second, we introduce new tools designed to address these impediments, including the first-ever interactive user guide. The overarching aims of this essay are (a) to help SoTL researchers navigate this complex terrain, and (b) to encourage other Canadian REBs to consider implementing more permissive regimes.En 2016, le comité d’éthique de la recherche de l’Université Dalhousie a mis sur pied un groupe de travail interdisciplinaire pour identifier les défis éthiques principaux de la recherche en ACEA, avec pour but suprême de recommander les meilleures pratiques et de communiquer celles-ci aux chercheurs afin de soutenir et d’élargir la conduite de recherches éthiques en ACEA. Cet article se penche sur les leçons apprises tout au long de ce processus et met en lumière les trois questions les plus controversées qui ont été dévoilées : employer les heures de classe pour mener des recherches en ACEA, intégrer les évaluations de l’enseignement des étudiants dans l’ACEA et incorporer les travaux des étudiants en tant que source de données. Cet article contribue à la nouvelle conversation concernant l’éthique de la recherche en ACEA de deux manières importantes. Tout d’abord, nous proposons des protocoles de CÉR plus indulgents qui encouragent la recherche en ACEA en exposant comment les interprétations restrictives des questions principales constituent des obstacles à la recherche centrée sur les étudiants. Ensuite, nous introduisons de nouveaux outils conçus pour répondre à ces obstacles, y compris le tout premier guide de l’utilisateur interactif. Les objectifs suprêmes de cet article sont a) d’aider les chercheurs en ACEA à naviguer dans ce terrain complexe et b) d’encourager d’autres CÉR canadiens à envisager d’adopter des régimes plus permissifs

Siloed discourses: a year-long study of twitter engagement on the use of CRISPR in food and agriculture

Gene editing technologies are emerging as powerful tools for agricultural development, spurring both hopes and concerns in society. To understand emerging discourses and coalitions around the role of CRISPR gene editing in food and agriculture we map the main actors and themes emerging from English-speaking Twitter networks over the course of one year (2021). Scientific actors are the most active and best networked in the debate. They promote a positive image of CRISPR gene editing and actively work to strengthen their network. A smaller but equally distinct group comprises civil society actors, who voice skepticism towards the technology and sometimes questions scientists' claims, but without eliciting responses from the scientists. We conclude that emerging discourse coalitions forming around the topic of CRISPR in food and agriculture on Twitter are siloed, with limited interaction between contrasting perspectives