Food justice or food sovereignty? Understanding the rise of urban food movements in the USA

As world food and fuel prices threaten expanding urban populations, there is greater need for the urban poor to have access and claims over how and where food is produced and distributed. This is especially the case in marginalized urban settings where high proportions of the population are food insecure. The global movement for food sovereignty has been one attempt to reclaim rights and participation in the food system and challenge corporate food regimes. However, given its origins from the peasant farmers' movement, La Via Campesina, food sovereignty is often considered a rural issue when increasingly its demands for fair food systems are urban in nature. Through interviews with scholars, urban food activists, non-governmental and grassroots organizations in Oakland and New Orleans in the United States of America, we examine the extent to which food sovereignty has become embedded as a concept, strategy and practice. We consider food sovereignty alongside other dominant US social movements such as food justice, and find that while many organizations do not use the language of food sovereignty explicitly, the motives behind urban food activism are similar across movements as local actors draw on elements of each in practice. Overall, however, because of the different histories, geographic contexts, and relations to state and capital, food justice and food sovereignty differ as strategies and approaches. We conclude that the US urban food sovereignty movement is limited by neoliberal structural contexts that dampen its approach and radical framework. Similarly, we see restrictions on urban food justice movements that are also operating within a broader framework of market neoliberalism. However, we find that food justice was reported as an approach more aligned with the socio-historical context in both cities, due to its origins in broader class and race struggles.

New insights from IODP Expedition 340 offshore Montserrat: First drilling of large volcanic island landslides

Montserrat now provides one of the most complete datasets for understanding the character and tempo of hazardous events at volcanic islands. Much of the erupted material ends up offshore, and this offshore record may be easier to date due to intervening hemiplegic sediments between event beds. The offshore dataset includes the first scientific drilling of volcanic island landslides during IODP Expedition 340, together with an unusually comprehensive set of shallow sediment cores and 2-D and 3-D seismic surveys. Most recently in 2013, Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) dives mapped and sampled the surface of the main landslide deposits. This contribution aims to provide an overview of key insights from ongoing work on IODP Expedition 340 Sites offshore Montserrat.Key objectives are to understand the composition (and hence source), emplacement mechanism (and hence tsunami generation) of major landslides, together with their frequency and timing relative to volcanic eruption cycles. The most recent major collapse event is Deposit 1, which involved ~1.8 km cubed of material and produced a blocky deposit at ~12-14ka. Deposit 1 appears to have involved not only the volcanic edifice, but also a substantial component of a fringing bioclastic shelf, and material locally incorporated from the underlying seafloor. This information allows us to test how first-order landslide morphology (e.g. blocky or elongate lobes) is related to first-order landslide composition. Preliminary analysis suggests that Deposit 1 occurred shortly before a second major landslide on the SW of the island (Deposit 5). It may have initiated English's Crater, but was not associated with a major change in magma composition. An associated turbidite-stack suggests it was emplaced in multiple stages, separated by at least a few hours and thus reducing the tsunami magnitude. The ROV dives show that mega-blocks in detail comprise smaller-scale breccias, which can travel significant distances without complete disintegration. Landslide Deposit 2 was emplaced at ~130ka, and is more voluminous (~8.4km cubed). It had a much more profound influence on the magmatic system, as it was linked to a major explosive mafic eruption and formation of a new volcanic centre (South Soufriere Hills) on the island. Site U1395 confirms a hypothesis based on the site survey seismic data that Deposit 2 includes a substantial component of pre-existing seafloor sediment. However, surprisingly, this pre-existing seafloor sediment in the lower part of Deposit 2 at Site U1395 is completely undeformed and flat lying, suggesting that Site U1395 penetrated a flat lying block. Work to date material from the upper part of U1396, U1395 and U1394 will also be summarised. This work is establishing a chronostratigraphy of major events over the last 1 Ma, with particularly detailed constraints during the last ~250ka. This is helping us to understand whether major landslides are related to cycles of volcanic eruptions.

The fossil calibration database - A new resource for divergence dating

Fossils provide the principal basis for temporal calibrations, which are critical to the accuracy of divergence dating analyses. Translating fossil data into minimum and maximum bounds for calibrations is the most important, and often least appreciated, step of divergence dating. Properly justified calibrations require the synthesis of phylogenetic, paleontological, and geological evidence and can be difficult for non-specialists to formulate. The dynamic nature of the fossil record (e.g., new discoveries, taxonomic revisions, updates of global or local stratigraphy) requires that calibration data be updated continually lest they become obsolete. Here, we announce the Fossil Calibration Database (http://fossilcalibrations.org), a new open-access resource providing vetted fossil calibrations to the scientific community. Calibrations accessioned into this database are based on individual fossil specimens and follow best practices for phylogenetic justification and geochronological constraint. The associated Fossil Calibration Series, a calibration-themed publication series at Palaeontologia Electronica, will serve as one key pipeline for peer-reviewed calibrations to enter the database.

Somali perspectives on physical activity: PhotoVoice to address barriers and resources in San Diego

Although many immigrants enter the United States with a healthy body weight, this health advantage disappears the longer they reside in the United States. To better understand the complexities of obesity change within a cultural framework, a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, PhotoVoice, was used, focusing on physical activity among Muslim Somali women. The CBPR partnership was formed to identify barriers and resources to engaging in physical activity with goals of advocacy and program development. Muslim Somali women (n = 8) were recruited to participate, trained and provided cameras, and engaged in group discussions about the scenes they photographed. Participants identified several barriers, including safety concerns, minimal culturally appropriate resources, and financial constraints. Strengths included public resources and a community support system. The CBPR process identified opportunities and challenges to collaboration and dissemination processes. The findings laid the framework for subsequent program development and community engagement.

The reach and rationale for community health fairs

Latinos living in the USA account for one third of the uninsured population and face numerous cultural, linguistic, and financial barriers to accessing healthcare services. Community health fairs have developed to address the unmet need for no- and low-cost services that target prevention and education among underserved communities. The current research describes an ongoing effort in a community in Southern California and examines the barriers to health care among participants registering to receive free breast health screenings, one of the major services offered at a 2010 health fair. A total of 186 adult Latina women completed a brief questionnaire assessing their healthcare utilization and self-reported barriers to engaging in preventive and screening services. Approximately two thirds of the participants reported never receiving or having more than 2 years passing since receiving a preventive health check-up. Participants identified cost (64.5 %) and knowledge of locations for services (52.3 %) as the primary barriers to engaging in routine healthcare services. Engaging with health professionals represents a leading way in which adults obtain health information; health fairs offering cancer health screenings represent a culturally appropriate venue for increased cancer health equity. Implications of the current research for future health fairs and their role in community cancer education are discussed.

Transnationalism and the Karen wrist-tying ceremony: An ethnographic account of Karen settlement practice in Brisbane

When settling, people often use cultural schema from their original homeland to build familiarity in unfamiliar surrounds. This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the first author in Brisbane, with the Karen community from Burma, during which participant observation and interview methods were used. We present an ethnographic account of the Brisbane Karen wrist-tying ceremony. The ceremony acts as an insight into the challenges for Karen whilst settling into Australia. It reflects multiple accounts of history and tradition, but simultaneously speaks to emerging, contemporary Karen contexts. This research contributes to richer understandings of settlement: it frames transnational cultural practice as a flexible mode of integration, rather than an exclusionary mode of othering. We propose that the integrative discourse of the ceremony creates familiarity and social connection in local and diasporic spaces. This acts as a counter to the challenges of Karen settlement including the negotiations of local/global identity politics.

Ethical leadership in a time of increasing accountability

Australia, like many other countries, has embraced national testing as part of wider reforms and increased accountability in schooling. Results for standardised testing programs, such as NAPLAN, are widely published yet form only one part of accountability for educators. We argue that accountability also has moral, ethical and professional dimensions. In this paper we offer a discussion of background to our study of ethical leadership in a time of data driven or contractual accountability. Based on Starratt’s (1996) model, we define ethical leadership as a social, relational practice concerned with the moral purpose of education (Angus, 2006). Our central thesis is that given increasing accountabilities, school leaders need to consider approaches to ethical leadership to improve quality and equity in education and achieve equitable outcomes for all students. The paper concludes with key implications for school leaders.

Short-rib polydactyly and jeune syndromes are caused by mutations in WDR60

Short-rib polydactyly syndromes (SRPS I-V) are a group of lethal congenital disorders characterized by shortening of the ribs and long bones, polydactyly, and a range of extraskeletal phenotypes. A number of other disorders in this grouping, including Jeune and Ellis-van Creveld syndromes, have an overlapping but generally milder phenotype. Collectively, these short-rib dysplasias (with or without polydactyly) share a common underlying defect in primary cilium function and form a subset of the ciliopathy disease spectrum. By using whole-exome capture and massive parallel sequencing of DNA from an affected Australian individual with SRPS type III, we detected two novel heterozygous mutations in WDR60, a relatively uncharacterized gene. These mutations segregated appropriately in the unaffected parents and another affected family member, confirming compound heterozygosity, and both were predicted to have a damaging effect on the protein. Analysis of an additional 54 skeletal ciliopathy exomes identified compound heterozygous mutations in WDR60 in a Spanish individual with Jeune syndrome of relatively mild presentation. Of note, these two families share one novel WDR60 missense mutation, although haplotype analysis suggested no shared ancestry. We further show that WDR60 localizes at the base of the primary cilium in wild-type human chondrocytes, and analysis of fibroblasts from affected individuals revealed a defect in ciliogenesis and aberrant accumulation of the GLI2 transcription factor at the centrosome or basal body in the absence of an obvious axoneme. These findings show that WDR60 mutations can cause skeletal ciliopathies and suggest a role for WDR60 in ciliogenesis.

Mutations in the gene encoding IFT dynein complex component WDR34 cause jeune asphyxiating thoracic dystrophy

Bidirectional (anterograde and retrograde) motor-based intraflagellar transport (IFT) governs cargo transport and delivery processes that are essential for primary cilia growth and maintenance and for hedgehog signaling functions. The IFT dynein-2 motor complex that regulates ciliary retrograde protein transport contains a heavy chain dynein ATPase/motor subunit, DYNC2H1, along with other less well functionally defined subunits. Deficiency of IFT proteins, including DYNC2H1, underlies a spectrum of skeletal ciliopathies. Here, by using exome sequencing and a targeted next-generation sequencing panel, we identified a total of 11 mutations in WDR34 in 9 families with the clinical diagnosis of Jeune syndrome (asphyxiating thoracic dystrophy). WDR34 encodes a WD40 repeat-containing protein orthologous to Chlamydomonas FAP133, a dynein intermediate chain associated with the retrograde intraflagellar transport motor. Three-dimensional protein modeling suggests that the identified mutations all affect residues critical for WDR34 protein-protein interactions. We find that WDR34 concentrates around the centrioles and basal bodies in mammalian cells, also showing axonemal staining. WDR34 coimmunoprecipitates with the dynein-1 light chain DYNLL1 in vitro, and mining of proteomics data suggests that WDR34 could represent a previously unrecognized link between the cytoplasmic dynein-1 and IFT dynein-2 motors. Together, these data show that WDR34 is critical for ciliary functions essential to normal development and survival, most probably as a previously unrecognized component of the mammalian dynein-IFT machinery.

Caught in the act of collaboration: Students’ experiences of collective learning within a real-world design studio context

This study is an evaluation of design students’ perceptions of the benefits of collective learning in a real-world collaborative design studio. Third year students worked in inter-disciplinary teams representing architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and industrial design. Responding to a real-world brief and in consultation with an industry partner client and early childhood education pre-service teachers, the teams were required to collectively propose a design response for a community-based child and family centre, on an iconic koala sanctuary site. Data were collected using several methods including a participatory action research method, through the form of a large analogue, collaborative jigsaw puzzle. Using a grounded theory methodology, qualitative data were thematically analysed to reveal six distinct aspects of collaboration, which positively impacted the students’ learning experience. The results of this study include recommendations for improving real world collaboration in the design studio in preparation for students’ transition into professional practice.

Curriculum reform in testing and accountability contexts

Recent international educational developments have important implications for the skills and understandings in curriculum and assessment that teachers develop, both in pre-service and in practice. Global developments in curriculum and assessment reform require teachers to utilise a network of knowledges and develop a repertoire of assessment skills and understandings. In a context of testing, accountability and auditing, data analysis skills are increasingly required to examine pedagogic practices for the development of intervention teaching and learning strategies to improve learning outcomes for all students (Marsh, 2009). However, too often the data are used predominantly for accountability purposes that serve at national levels as a catalyst for measurement, comparison and allocation of funding (Lingard and Sellar, 2013). With increased accountability demands brought about by global competitiveness and programs for international measurement of educational attainment, there has also emerged an increase in the use of testing, which in some countries has become the dominant form of assessment. For example in Australia, national testing of students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 began in 2008 under the National Australia Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). The results from this program for each school are published on the My School website (www.myschool.edu.au), increasing the competitive nature of the testing and intensifying the demands on teachers and schools. In particular, there has been a shift in the enacted curriculum in Australia to a focus on literacy and numeracy because the curriculum is tested.

Postcoital dysphoria: Prevalence and psychological correlates

Introduction While problems related to desire, arousal, and orgasm have been subject to extensive epidemiologic research, women's postcoital reactions and feelings, and postcoital dysphoria (PCD) remains under-researched. - Aim The study examined the association between women's attachment anxiety and avoidance, differentiation of self, and the experience of PCD symptoms. - Methods Two hundred and thirty female university students completed an online survey. - Main Outcome Measures The Female Sexual Function Index, the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale, the Differentiation of Self Inventory-Revised, and study specific questions. - Results Forty-six percent of respondents reported experiencing PCD symptoms at least once in their lifetime with 5.1% experiencing PCD symptoms a few times within the past 4 weeks. A small but significant inverse correlation was found between lifetime prevalence of PCD and sexual functioning (r = −0.16). While the regression model accounted for 22% of variance in lifetime prevalence of PCD, attachment and differentiation of self variables did not account for significant variance. - Conclusions The findings confirm that PCD is under-recognized and under-researched. There appears to be no relationship between PCD and intimacy in close relationships. Further research is necessary to understand the subjective experience of PCD and to inform the development of a reliable measure.

Exploring female university students' beliefs about binge eating

Binge eating (BE) among female university students is rising in prevalence and few studies have considered the role of social cognitive processes in decisions to engage in BE. This study adopted a theory of planned behavior (TPB) belief-based approach to examine the beliefs that underpin female university students' intentions to BE. Participants (N = 250) completed self-report questionnaires assessing BE intentions and the TPB behavioral (advantages and disadvantages of BE), normative (important others approving/disapproving of BE), and control (barriers toward and motivators for BE) belief measures. For analyses, participants were grouped based on a median split of the overall intention score into those with higher and lower intentions to binge eat. Differences in the TPB beliefs about BE between these two groups were then assessed. Female students with higher intentions to binge eat differed significantly in their endorsement of the likely beliefs related to BE, compared to female students with lower intentions to binge eat. The results suggest that interventions to decrease BE in the female student population should reduce the associated advantages (e.g., stress relief and feelings of comfort), enhance perceptions of disapproval for BE from important others (e.g., partner and friends), provide education about the health implications to strengthen the perceived barriers discouraging BE, and suggest healthy alternatives to overcome the factors (e.g., being alone and boredom) motivating BE

The effect of β-alanine and NaHCO3 co-ingestion on buffering capacity and exercise performance with high-intensity exercise in healthy males

Introduction β-alanine (BAl) and NaHCO3 (SB) ingestion may provide performance benefits by enhancing concentrations of their respective physiochemical buffer counterparts, muscle carnosine and blood bicarbonate, counteracting acidosis during intense exercise. This study examined the effect of BAl and SB co-supplementation as an ergogenic strategy during high-intensity exercise. Methods Eight healthy males ingested either BAl (4.8 g day−1 for 4 weeks, increased to 6.4 g day−1 for 2 weeks) or placebo (Pl) (CaCO3) for 6 weeks, in a crossover design (6-week washout between supplements). After each chronic supplementation period participants performed two trials, each consisting of two intense exercise tests performed over consecutive days. Trials were separated by 1 week and consisted of a repeated sprint ability (RSA) test and cycling capacity test at 110 % Wmax (CCT110 %). Placebo (Pl) or SB (300 mg kgbw−1) was ingested prior to exercise in a crossover design to creating four supplement conditions (BAl-Pl, BAl-SB, Pl–Pl, Pl-SB). Results Carnosine increased in the gastrocnemius (n = 5) (p = 0.03) and soleus (n = 5) (p = 0.02) following BAl supplementation, and Pl-SB and BAl-SB ingestion elevated blood HCO3 − concentrations (p < 0.01). Although buffering capacity was elevated following both BAl and SB ingestion, performance improvement was only observed with BAl-Pl and BAl-SB increasing time to exhaustion of the CCT110 % test 14 and 16 %, respectively, compared to Pl–Pl (p < 0.01). Conclusion Supplementation of BAl and SB elevated buffering potential by increasing muscle carnosine and blood bicarbonate levels, respectively. BAl ingestion improved performance during the CCT110 %, with no aggregating effect of SB supplementation (p > 0.05). Performance was not different between treatments during the RSA test.