The role of moral leadership for sustainable consumption and production

In this paper we argue that an adequate understanding of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) involves a mature consciousness of the interdependence between ourselves and the rest of our human family and its habitat. The principles, the actions and the vision that form the basis for SCP are not unknown, but there is a considerable gap between knowledge and action and behavioural incentives are not sufficient for system change. In the conversations between the authors of this paper, a practitioner and an academic, on the reasons for this knowledge-action gap there emerged a common recognition of the potentially significant role of values and particularly values-based leadership in the processes and partnerships that work for sustainability transitions in SCP. Our starting point is that values, what we humans consider to be good, are formed by a range of factors (cultural, political, social, religious) and are thus subject to change. Individuals who internalize values that are supportive of SCP manifest values-based leadership and if these are accompanied by specific capabilities, such leaders will exemplify the necessary paradigm shift towards sustainable consumption and production and lead the wider society towards it. The paper outlines how one model of values based leadership - the framework of moral leadership (ML)developed by Eloy Anello and others at Nur University in Bolivia - supports transformation towards sustainable consumption and production

Role clarification for local institutions:a missing link in multi-level adaptation planning? Insights from a multiple case study in Botswana

The meaningful engagement of community-based actors in climate change adaptation planning is crucial for effective plans, but achieving it is an ongoing challenge, even with participatory methods. In this paper we explore very different approach, using shared-values crystallization as a pre-process to standard vulnerability risk assessments (VRAs), which recently reported significant impacts on plans produced. We posit this could be due to learning via changed local perceptions of roles, and we use multiple-case study work with five Village Development Committees (VDCs) in North East District, Botswana, and examine VRA outputs, and pre- and post-VRA interview transcripts, for evidence. Findings indicate that VDC members who took part in the shared-values pre-process significantly clarified and prioritized their general roles, and subsequently engaged more deeply in the planning process, taking more responsibility and ownership for the final adaptation plans. They related climate risks to their local lived-realities better, producing quality action plans, funding innovations and mainstreaming of adaptation into wider local plans, alongside an eagerness to present ideas to higher-governance levels. These findings suggest the shared-values pre-process could be immediately valuable for multilevel adaptation planning practices, and that the concept of role clarification deserves more specific consideration in academic studies on participation.</p

Research Review: Polygenic methods and their application to psychiatric traits

Despite evidence from twin and family studies for an important contribution of genetic factors to both childhood and adult onset psychiatric disorders, identifying robustly associated specific DNA variants has proved challenging. In the pregenomics era the genetic architecture (number, frequency and effect size of risk variants) of complex genetic disorders was unknown. Empirical evidence for the genetic architecture of psychiatric disorders is emerging from the genetic studies of the last 5 years. Methods and scope: We review the methods investigating the polygenic nature of complex disorders. We provide mini-guides to genomic profile (or polygenic) risk scoring and to estimation of variance (or heritability) from common SNPs; a glossary of key terms is also provided. We review results of applications of the methods to psychiatric disorders and related traits and consider how these methods inform on missing heritability, hidden heritability and still-missing heritability. Findings: Genome-wide genotyping and sequencing studies are providing evidence that psychiatric disorders are truly polygenic, that is they have a genetic architecture of many genetic variants, including risk variants that are both common and rare in the population. Sample sizes published to date are mostly underpowered to detect effect sizes of the magnitude presented by nature, and these effect sizes may be constrained by the biological validity of the diagnostic constructs. Conclusions: Increasing the sample size for genome wide association studies of psychiatric disorders will lead to the identification of more associated genetic variants, as already found for schizophrenia. These loci provide the starting point of functional analyses that might eventually lead to new prevention and treatment options and to improved biological validity of diagnostic constructs. Polygenic analyses will contribute further to our understanding of complex genetic traits as sample sizes increase and as sample resources become richer in phenotypic descriptors, both in terms of clinical symptoms and of nongenetic risk factors

Knowledge-Level Reflection

This paper presents an overview of the REFLECT project. It defines the notion of knowledge level reflection that has been central to the project, it compares this notion with existing approaches to reflection in related fields, and investigates some of the consequences of the concept of knowledge level reflection: what is a general architecture for knowledge level reflection, how to model the object component in such an architecture, what is the nature of reflective theories, how can we design such architectures, and what are the results of our actual experiments with such systems

The Construction and Validation of an Abridged Version of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ-Short)

This study reports on the development and validation of an abridged version of the 50-item Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), a self-report measure of autistic traits. We aimed to reduce the number of items whilst retaining high validity and a meaningful factor structure. The item reduction procedure was performed on data from 1,263 Dutch students and general population adults. The resulting 28-item AQ-Short was subsequently validated in 3 independent samples, both clinical and controls, from the Netherlands and the UK. The AQ-Short comprises two higher-order factors assessing ‘social behavioral difficulties’ and ‘a fascination for numbers/patterns’. The clear factor structure of the AQ-Short and its high sensitivity and specificity make the AQ-Short a useful alternative to the full 50-item version

Energy security in a developing world

Energy security, a fuzzy concept, has traditionally been used to justify state control over energy and a reluctance to deal with energy issues at global level. However, over time, the concept is acquiring different meanings that are applicable at different levels of governance. Many of the elements of the new definitions also imply a number of inherent contradictions. Against this background, this article explores the dimensions of energy security with a special focus on the developing world. It argues that (1) within developing countries (DCs), energy security implies both access to modern energy services by the poorest as well as access by the rapidly developing industrial, services, and urban sectors. Lack of adequate resources has implied trade-offs in terms of who gets access and in terms of taking into account the social and ecological consequences of specific energy sources. Furthermore, (2) the growing DCs' need for energy is impacted by industrialized country perceptions of the various dimensions of energy security-recognizing the need for access to the poorest; industrialized countries are increasingly implicitly questioning the right of DCs to use fossil fuels because of its implications for climate change; or to build large dams because of ecological and social security concerns or expand nuclear energy because of its potential security implications. The development of reliable, continuous, affordable, and environmentally sound provision of energy services combined with a focus on energy efficiency and conservation is the only way of alleviating the various multi-level dimensions of energy security. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Modeling of the hemodynamic responses in block design fMRI studies

The hemodynarnic response function (HRF) describes the local response of brain vasculature to functional activation. Accurate HRF modeling enables the investigation of cerebral blood flow regulation and improves our ability to interpret fMRI results. Block designs have been used extensively as fMRI paradigms because detection power is maximized; however, block designs are not optimal for HRF parameter estimation. Here we assessed the utility of block design fMRI data for HRF modeling. The trueness (relative deviation), precision (relative uncertainty), and identifiability (goodness-of-fit) of different HRF models were examined and test-retest reproducibility of HRF parameter estimates was assessed using computer simulations and fMRI data from 82 healthy young adult twins acquired on two occasions 3 to 4 months apart. The effects of systematically varying attributes of the block design paradigm were also examined. In our comparison of five HRF models, the model comprising the sum of two gamma functions with six free parameters had greatest parameter accuracy and identifiability. Hemodynamic response function height and time to peak were highly reproducible between studies and width was moderately reproducible but the reproducibility of onset time was low. This study established the feasibility and test-retest reliability of estimating HRF parameters using data from block design fMRI studies

The genetic aetiology of cannabis use initiation: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies and a SNP-based heritability estimation

While initiation of cannabis use is around 40% heritable, not much is known about the underlying genetic aetiology. Here, we meta-analysed two genome-wide association studies of initiation of cannabis use with >10000 individuals. None of the genetic variants reached genome-wide significance. We also performed a gene-based association test, which also revealed no significant effects of individual genes. Finally, we estimated that only approximately 6% of the variation in cannabis initiation is due to common genetic variants. Future genetic studies using larger sample sizes and different methodologies (including sequencing) might provide more insight in the complex genetic aetiology of cannabis use