Authoritarian Populist Opinion in Europe

The paper extends work done on authoritarian populism (AP) in the UK to 11 other European countries: France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Italy, Spain, Romania, Lithuania, and Holland. Representative sample surveys with a common set of questions were conducted in each of these countries and in the UK in November 2016. The paper shows that authoritarian populist attitudes (anti-immigrant, anti-EU, anti-Human Rights and pro a robust foreign policy) form a single AP factor or scale in ten of the twelve countries surveyed (the two exceptions are Romania and Lithuania). Across these ten countries the sources of AP attitudes are also very similar, with particularly strong effects being observed for the perceived cultural consequences of immigration. The paper uses cluster analysis to show that authoritarian populism is not an exclusively right-wing mindset among European mass publics. Analysis of voting data shows that the reservoir of support for authoritarian populist parties is much larger than either the current electoral strength of such parties or the proportion of the population that intends to vote for them at the next general election would suggest

Two Fields Are Better Than One: Developmental and Comparative Perspectives On Understanding Spatial Reorientation

Occasionally, we lose track of our position in the world, and must re-establish where we are located in order to function. This process has been termed the ability to reorient and was first studied by Ken Cheng in 1986. Reorientation research has revealed some powerful cross-species commonalities. It has also engaged the question of human uniqueness because it has been claimed that human adults reorient differently from other species, or from young human children, in a fashion grounded in the distinctive combinatorial power of human language. In this chapter, we consider the phenomenon of reorientation in comparative perspective, both to evaluate specific claims regarding commonalities and differences in spatial navigation, and also to illustrate, more generally, how comparative cognition research and research in human cognitive development have deep mutual relevance

Climate Science, Development Practice, and Policy Interactions in Dryland Agroecological Systems

The literature on drought, livelihoods, and poverty suggests that dryland residents are especially vulnerable to climate change. However, assessing this vulnerability and sharing lessons between dryland communities on how to reduce vulnerability has proven difficult because of multiple definitions of vulnerability, complexities in quantification, and the temporal and spatial variability inherent in dryland agroecological systems. In this closing editorial, we review how we have addressed these challenges through a series of structured, multiscale, and interdisciplinary vulnerability assessment case studies from drylands in West Africa, southern Africa, Mediterranean Europe, Asia, and Latin America. These case studies adopt a common vulnerability framework but employ different approaches to measuring and assessing vulnerability. By comparing methods and results across these cases, we draw out the following key lessons: (1) Our studies show the utility of using consistent conceptual frameworks for vulnerability assessments even when quite different methodological approaches are taken; (2) Utilizing narratives and scenarios to capture the dynamics of dryland agroecological systems shows that vulnerability to climate change may depend more on access to financial, political, and institutional assets than to exposure to environmental change; (3) Our analysis shows that although the results of quantitative models seem authoritative, they may be treated too literally as predictions of the future by policy makers looking for evidence to support different strategies. In conclusion, we acknowledge there is a healthy tension between bottom-up/ qualitative/place-based approaches and top-down/quantitative/generalizable approaches, and we encourage researchers from different disciplines with different disciplinary languages, to talk, collaborate, and engage effectively with each other and with stakeholders at all levels

Recent Progress in STIR 5.0

STIR is an open source software for Emission Tomography data manipulation and image reconstruction, covering both PET and SPECT. In this work recent additions to the STIR code base are highlighted, namely the ability to read General Electric (GE) Raw Data Format 9 (RDF9) files, incorporation of GPU operators for forward and back projection, as well as work towards quantitative imaging for both PET and SPECT

Detection Efficiency Modelling and Joint Activity and Attenuation Reconstruction in non-TOF 3D PET from Multiple-Energy Window Data

Emission-based attenuation correction (AC) meth-ods offer the possibility of overcoming quantification errors induced by conventional MR-based approaches in PET/MR imaging. However, the joint problem of determining AC and the activity of interest is strongly ill-posed in non-TOF PET. This can be improved by exploiting the extra information arising from low energy window photons, but the feasibility of this approach has only been studied with relatively simplistic analytic simulations so far. This manuscript aims to address some of the remaining challenges needed to handle realistic measurements; in particular, the detection efficiency (“normalisation”) estimation for each energy window is investigated. An energy-dependent detection efficiency model is proposed, accounting for the presence of unscattered events in the lower energy window due to detector scatter. Geometric calibration factors are estimated prior to the reconstruction for both scattered and unscattered events. Different reconstruction methods are also compared. Results show that geometric factors differ markedly between the energy windows and that our analytical model correspond in good approximation to Monte Carlo simulation; the multiple energy window reconstruction appears sensitive to input/model mismatch. Our method applies to Monte Carlo generated data but can be extended to measured data. This study is restricted to single scatter events

Gender equity considerations in food environments of low and middle income countries: A scoping review

This study presents the results of a scoping literature review of gender equity in food environments of low- and middle-income countries. We start by examining the concept of food environments; and find that dividing the concept into two parts, one related to the food supply chain, and the other related to consumer behavior is useful for categorizing literature. One key finding is that although we specifically concentrated our search on articles related to gender in the food environment, the articles found focus more on the food supply chain and/or consumer behavior rather than specifically on the food environment. Most of the articles related to the food supply chain are based on studies conducted in Africa while most of the consumer behavior articles are from studies done in Asia. While gender equity is a topic of interest and is often said to be a priority for international development, relatively few articles were found about how gender equity impacts and/or is impacted by food environments. Those that do exist suggest that a food systems approach to healthier diets consider gender roles and responsibilities (i.e. gender division of labor and time use concerns), gendered access to and control over resources, and gender in decision-making processes. Gender norms related to these issues can present barriers to achieving the desired outcomes of food system interventions; on the other hand, they may also offer opportunities or clues about how to better move forward to achieve both food and nutrition security, and gender equity and equality goals