Bean production systems in Nicaragua: technology adoption in the face of climate adversity

We documented the bean production systems in Nicaragua, focusing on the adoption of improved bean varieties (IVs) under adverse climatic (rainfall) conditions and its economic effect on adopting households. Using data from a representative sample of 589 farmers (341 located in the dry corridor), we demonstrate statistical differences in the socioeconomic characteristics, farm characteristics, and bean management practices between IV adopters and non-adopters, and by region (i.e., dry vs. non-dry corridors). Farmers in the dry corridor obtained significantly lower yields compared to farmers in non-dry areas. Further, 30% of farmers in Nicaragua had adopted at least one improved bean variety in the seasons of interest, and 28.3% of the bean area was grown with IVs. Adopting an IV positively affected yields --farmers obtained 11% higher yields-- but had no statistically significant effect on profits. The results highlight the importance of growing improved bean varieties under adverse rainfall conditions, as farmers who adopted an IV in the dry corridor obtained 13.2% higher yields than non-adopters in the same region. We did not find statistical yield differences between IV adopters and non-adopters in non-dry regions

Evaluating indices of traditional ecological knowledge: a methodological contribution

BACKGROUND: New quantitative methods to collect and analyze data have produced novel findings in ethnobiology. A common application of quantitative methods in ethnobiology is to assess the traditional ecological knowledge of individuals. Few studies have addressed reliability of indices of traditional ecological knowledge constructed with different quantitative methods. METHODS: We assessed the associations among eight indices of traditional ecological knowledge from data collected from 650 native Amazonians. We computed Spearman correlations, Chronbach's alpha, and principal components factor analysis for the eight indices. RESULTS: We found that indices derived from different raw data were weakly correlated (rho<0.5), whereas indices derived from the same raw data were highly correlated (rho>0.5; p < 0.001). We also found a relatively high internal consistency across data from the eight indices (Chronbach's alpha = 0.78). Last, results from a principal components factor analysis of the eight indices suggest that the eight indices were positively related, although the association was low when considering only the first factor. CONCLUSION: A possible explanation for the relatively low correlation between indices derived from different raw data, but relatively high internal consistency of the eight indices is that the methods capture different aspects of an individual's traditional ecological knowledge. To develop a reliable measure of traditional ecological knowledge, researchers should collect raw data using a variety of methods and then generate an aggregated measure that contains data from the various components of traditional ecological knowledge. Failure to do this will hinder cross-cultural comparisons

Cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural production systems: a case study in Guatemala

As in other Latin American countries, agricultural activities in Guatemala contribute with 32% of the total employment (65% in rural areas), but only one in every ten individuals employed in these activities are women. This study examines the cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural (crop and livestock) production systems. We rely on a qualitative approach involving focus group discussions with 15–20 women in each of the eight communities visited in the departments of Chiquimula (Dry Corridor) and Huehuetenango (Western Highlands) in October 2022. The study provides several interesting findings, which generally hold across locations. First, women do not seem to have a strong preference for crop production activities, except harvesting, and only get involved in specifically assigned tasks. This lack of interest and participation in crop-related activities, which can be related to low empowerment levels and traditional stereotypes in the community about gender roles, persist even in locations with a higher emigration of men, where women could be expected to take over traditionally male crop-related tasks. Second, participants carry out a variety of other unpaid activities, including raising small-scale livestock and maintaining home gardens, which they do not recognize as formal, income-generating occupations despite their more active role. Third, women consider the commercialization of their products a persistent challenge as they do not have access to markets beyond their community, which additionally results in a deterrent to applying for credits due to a generalized fear of defaulting. Despite their day-to-day economic hardship, participants’ main aspirations point to generating more income in non-crop-related activities, mainly livestock farming and raising, or, alternatively, emigrating to provide a better future for their children. These findings remark the importance of offering extensive support to women to not only start new activities, as it has been the case of several public and private initiatives in the area, but help them through continuous extension services on production, storage, and commercialization; management and accounting; and financial literacy, as well as on building agency capacity through existing women groups and organizations and enabling the environment for improved access to markets and credit

The Cacao Market System in Honduras: Opportunities for Supporting Renovation and Rehabilitation

The Maximizing Opportunities in Coffee and Cacao in the Americas (MOCCA) project is a five-year initiative funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and implemented by a consortium led by TechnoServe, in collaboration with Lutheran World Relief, the Initiative for Smallholder Finance, and World Coffee Research. This regional initiative will apply a market systems approach to improve the livelihoods of 120,000 farmers in the coffee and cocoa sectors in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru (henceforth MOCCA countries) through increased productivity and trade. Given the complexity of MOCCA’s design, the impact evaluation will evaluate outcomes at two levels - 1) at the market system level to assess changes in the behavior of key market system actors and 2) at the farmer level to assess changes in the benefits provided to farmers within the market system. This report is an extract from the results of the first part of the baseline evaluation, at the market systems level, which will be used by the MOCCA team to inform the Program's strategy. This assessment used qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews and focus groups with actors from different positions within the sector in order to build a robust image of how each system is currently functioning at the national level. The focus was on identifying current actors and understanding their current behavior within the system vis-a-vis other actors, and vis-a-vis farmers. Following MOCCA’s Theory of Change, we focused on behaviors related to provision of services to farmers including technical assistance, genetic material, finance and research, with particular emphasis on these services as they relate to rehabilitation and renovation (R&R). Three hundred different actors were engaged as informants across the eleven sectors studied (5 countries for coffee, 6 countries for cacao). Data was collected during April to June 2019. This document describes the CACAO market system in HONDURAS at the time of research

El Sistema de Mercado de Cacao en El Salvador: Oportunidades para apoyar la renovación y la rehabilitación

El proyecto Maximizando las Oportunidades en Café y Cacao en las Américas (MOCCA) es una iniciativa del Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA) e implementado por el consorcio liderado por TechnoServe, en colaboración con Lutheran World Relief, Initiative for Smallholder Finance, y World Coffee Research. Esta iniciativa regional aplicará un enfoque de sistemas de mercado para mejorar los medios de vida de 120,000 agricultores en los sectores de café y cacao en Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua y Perú (en adelante, referidos como países MOCCA) a través de una mayor productividad y comercio. Dada la complejidad del diseño del proyecto MOCCA, la evaluación de impacto evaluará los resultados a dos niveles: 1) a nivel del sistema de mercado para evaluar los cambios en el comportamiento de los actores clave del sistema de mercado, y 2) a nivel del agricultor para evaluar los cambios en los beneficios proporcionados a los agricultores dentro del sistema de mercado. Este reporte describe los resultados de la primera parte de la evaluación de línea de base a nivel de sistemas de mercado, que será utilizada por el equipo de MOCCA para informar la estrategia del programa. Esta evaluación utilizó métodos cualitativos, incluyendo entrevistas semiestructuradas y grupos focales con actores ubicados en diferentes posiciones dentro del sector, para construir una imagen sólida de cómo funciona actualmente cada sistema a nivel nacional. La atención se centró en identificar a los actores presentes y comprender su comportamiento actual dentro del sistema frente a otros actores y ante los agricultores. Siguiendo la Teoría del Cambio de MOCCA, el estudio se centró en los comportamientos relacionados con la provisión de servicios a los agricultores, incluida la asistencia técnica, el material genético, la investigación y las finanzas, con especial énfasis en estos servicios en relación con procesos de rehabilitación y renovación (R&R). Trescientos actores participaron como informantes en los once sectores estudiados (5 países para café, 6 países para cacao). Los datos fueron recolectados entre abril y junio de 2019. Este reporte describe el sistema de mercado de CACAO en EL SALVADOR en el momento de la investigación

The Cacao Market System in Guatemala: Opportunities for Supporting Renovation and Rehabilitation

The Maximizing Opportunities in Coffee and Cacao in the Americas (MOCCA) project is a five-year initiative funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and implemented by a consortium led by TechnoServe, in collaboration with Lutheran World Relief, the Initiative for Smallholder Finance, and World Coffee Research. This regional initiative will apply a market systems approach to improve the livelihoods of 120,000 farmers in the coffee and cocoa sectors in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru (henceforth MOCCA countries) through increased productivity and trade. Given the complexity of MOCCA’s design, the impact evaluation will evaluate outcomes at two levels - 1) at the market system level to assess changes in the behavior of key market system actors and 2) at the farmer level to assess changes in the benefits provided to farmers within the market system. This report is an extract from the results of the first part of the baseline evaluation, at the market systems level, which will be used by the MOCCA team to inform the Program's strategy. This assessment used qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews and focus groups with actors from different positions within the sector in order to build a robust image of how each system is currently functioning at the national level. The focus was on identifying current actors and understanding their current behavior within the system vis-a-vis other actors, and vis-a-vis farmers. Following MOCCA’s Theory of Change, we focused on behaviors related to provision of services to farmers including technical assistance, genetic material, finance and research, with particular emphasis on these services as they relate to rehabilitation and renovation (R&R). Three hundred different actors were engaged as informants across the eleven sectors studied (5 countries for coffee, 6 countries for cacao). Data was collected during April to June 2019. This document describes the CACAO market system in GUATEMALA at the time of research

Is there a divide between local medicinal knowledge and Western medicine? a case study among native Amazonians in Bolivia

Background: Interest in ethnomedicine has grown in the last decades, with much research focusing on how local medicinal knowledge can contribute to Western medicine. Researchers have emphasized the divide between practices used by local medical practitioners and Western doctors. However, researchers have also suggested that merging concepts and practices from local medicinal knowledge and Western science have the potential to improve public health and support medical independence of local people. In this article we study the relations between local and Western medicinal knowledge within a native Amazonian population, the Tsimane'. Methods: We used the following methods: 1) participant observation and semi-structured interviews to gather background information, 2) free-listing and pile-sorting to assess whether Tsimane' integrate local medicinal knowledge and Western medicine at the conceptual level, 3) surveys to assess to what extent Tsimane' combine local medicinal knowledge with Western medicine in actual treatments, and 4) a participatory workshop to assess the willingness of Tsimane' and Western medical specialists to cooperate with each other. Results: We found that when asked about medical treatments, Tsimane' do not include Western treatments in their lists, however on their daily practices, Tsimane' do use Western treatments in combination with ethnomedical treatments. We also found that Tsimane' healers and Western doctors express willingness to cooperate with each other and to promote synergy between local and Western medical systems. Conclusion: Our findings contrast with previous research emphasizing the divide between local medical practitioners and Western doctors and suggests that cooperation between both health systems might be possible

The Perceived Benefits of Height: Strength, Dominance, Social Concern, and Knowledge among Bolivian Native Amazonians

Research in industrial countries suggests that, with no other knowledge about a person, positive traits are attributed to taller people and correspondingly, that taller people have slightly better socioeconomic status (SES). However, research in some non-industrialized contexts has shown no correlation or even negative correlations between height and socioeconomic outcomes. It remains unclear whether positive traits remain attributed to taller people in such contexts. To address this question, here we report the results of a study in a foraging-farming society of native Amazonians in Bolivia (Tsimane’)–a group in which we have previously shown little association between height and socioeconomic outcomes. We showed 24 photographs of pairs of Tsimane’ women, men, boys, and girls to 40 women and 40 men >16 years of age. We presented four behavioral scenarios to each participant and asked them to point to the person in the photograph with greater strength, dominance, social concern, or knowledge. The pairs in the photographs were of the same sex and age, but one person was shorter. Tsimane’ women and men attributed greater strength, dominance, and knowledge to taller girls and boys, but they did not attribute most positive traits to taller adults, except for strength, and more social concern only when women assessed other women in the photographs. These results raise a puzzle: why would Tsimane’ attribute positive traits to tall children, but not tall adults? We propose three potential explanations: adults’ expectations about the more market integrated society in which their children will grow up, height as a signal of good child health, and children’s greater variation in the traits assessed corresponding to maturational stages

Author Correction: Expanded encyclopaedias of DNA elements in the human and mouse genomes

Online Correction for: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2493-4 | Erratum for https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/21299In the version of this article initially published, two members of the ENCODE Project Consortium were missing from the author list. Rizi Ai (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA) and Shantao Li (Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA) are now included in the author list. These errors have been corrected in the online version of the article : 'Expanded encyclopaedias of DNA elements in the human and mouse genomes'.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04226-3https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04226-

Regulation of Hemolysin Expression and Virulence of Staphylococcus aureus by a Serine/Threonine Kinase and Phosphatase

Exotoxins, including the hemolysins known as the alpha (α) and beta (β) toxins, play an important role in the pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus infections. A random transposon library was screened for S. aureus mutants exhibiting altered hemolysin expression compared to wild type. Transposon insertions in 72 genes resulting in increased or decreased hemolysin expression were identified. Mutations inactivating a putative cyclic di-GMP synthetase and a serine/threonine phosphatase (Stp1) were found to reduce hemolysin expression, and mutations in genes encoding a two component regulator PhoR, LysR family transcriptional regulator, purine biosynthetic enzymes and a serine/threonine kinase (Stk1) increased expression. Transcription of the hla gene encoding α toxin was decreased in a Δstp1 mutant strain and increased in a Δstk1 strain. Microarray analysis of a Δstk1 mutant revealed increased transcription of additional exotoxins. A Δstp1 strain is severely attenuated for virulence in mice and elicits less inflammation and IL-6 production than the Δstk1 strain. In vivo phosphopeptide enrichment and mass spectrometric analysis revealed that threonine phosphorylated peptides corresponding to Stk1, DNA binding histone like protein (HU), serine-aspartate rich fibrinogen/bone sialoprotein binding protein (SdrE) and a hypothetical protein (NWMN_1123) were present in the wild type and not in the Δstk1 mutant. Collectively, these studies suggest that Stk1 mediated phosphorylation of HU, SrdE and NWMN_1123 affects S. aureus gene expression and virulence