This systematic review assembles evidence for rights-based approaches–the right to food and food sovereignty–for achieving food security and adequate nutrition (FSN). We evaluated peer-reviewed and ...gray literature produced between 1992 and 2018 that documents empirical relationships between the right to food or food sovereignty and FSN. We classified studies by literature type, study region, policy approach (food sovereignty or right to food) and impact (positive, negative, neutral, and reverse-positive) on FSN. To operationalize the concepts of food sovereignty and the right to food and connect them to the tangible interventions and practices observed in each reviewed study, we also classified studies according to 11 action types theorized to have an impact on FSN; these included “Addressing inequities in land access and confronting the process of land concentration” and “Promoting gender equity,” among others. We found strong evidence from across the globe indicating that food sovereignty and the right to food positively influence FSN outcomes. A small number of documented cases suggest that narrow rights-based policies or interventions are insufficient to overcome larger structural barriers to realizing FSN, such as inequitable land policy or discrimination based on race, gender or class.
Among all of the possible approaches to reducing hunger in the world, efforts to increase agricultural productivity dominate in development institutions and large philanthropies. In this productivist ...paradigm, the function of agriculture is narrow, and further investments in industrial agriculture are the greatest need. This view clashes with the intricate diversity and multiple functions of farms and gardens in Yucatan, Mexico. Agroecosystems there are spectacularly diverse. Besides providing many products to eat and sell, those farms are uniquely well suited to feed households in the increasingly erratic weather of Yucatan, where droughts and storms often wipe out certain crops. In a diverse garden, there is nearly always something to eat. There is little evidence that increasing agricultural production alone promotes food security, and there are many instances in which the drive for productivity has exacerbated hunger. In this article, I investigate why productivism has dominated development policy and discourse for so long.
Biodiversity conservation and food security are often assumed to be separate or conflicting issues. In the municipality of Tzucacab, in a rural corner of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, I found that crop ...diversity and food security are deeply intertwined. I measured food security and home garden agrobiodiversity on a randomized selection of sixty smallholder farms in the municipality, conducted ethnographic interviews over a period of four years, and collaborated with six high school students on a participatory photography project documenting local food culture. From the quantitative data, I found that crop diversity is the strongest predictor of household food security during a drought in the rural municipality I surveyed. This finding indicates that maintaining high levels of agrobiodiversity can be an important strategy for subsistence farmers to buffer their food supply against the risk of crop failure. Additionally, I found evidence that diversification of the home garden is one important strategy managing risk among a complex of several approaches to livelihood diversification. The finding helps to explain why some farmers conserve diversity while others do not, and suggests that the goals of agrobiodiversity conservation and rural food security might be better addressed together. These results point to the ability of small-scale, diverse farms run by campesino farmers to feed themselves, challenging the dominant discourse and practice of development that prioritizes increasing yields above all other properties of agroecosystems.
Mutations in HNRNPA1 encoding heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A1 are a rare cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multisystem proteinopathy (MSP). hnRNPA1 is part of the ...group of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) that assemble with RNA to form RNPs. hnRNPs are concentrated in the nucleus and function in pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA stability, and the regulation of transcription and translation. During stress, hnRNPs, mRNA, and other RBPs condense in the cytoplasm to form stress granules (SGs). SGs are implicated in the pathogenesis of (neuro-)degenerative diseases, including ALS and inclusion body myopathy (IBM). Mutations in RBPs that affect SG biology, including FUS, TDP-43, hnRNPA1, hnRNPA2B1, and TIA1, underlie ALS, IBM, and other neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we characterize 4 potentially novel HNRNPA1 mutations (yielding 3 protein variants: *321Eext*6, *321Qext*6, and G304Nfs*3) and 2 known HNRNPA1 mutations (P288A and D262V), previously connected to ALS and MSP, in a broad spectrum of patients with hereditary motor neuropathy, ALS, and myopathy. We establish that the mutations can have different effects on hnRNPA1 fibrillization, liquid-liquid phase separation, and SG dynamics. P288A accelerated fibrillization and decelerated SG disassembly, whereas *321Eext*6 had no effect on fibrillization but decelerated SG disassembly. By contrast, G304Nfs*3 decelerated fibrillization and impaired liquid phase separation. Our findings suggest different underlying pathomechanisms for HNRNPA1 mutations with a possible link to clinical phenotypes.
TraI (DNA helicase I) is an Escherichia coli F plasmid-encoded protein required for bacterial conjugative DNA transfer. The protein is a sequence-specific DNA transesterase that provides the site- ...and strand-specific nick required to initiate DNA strand transfer and a 5' to 3' DNA helicase that unwinds the F plasmid to provide the single-stranded DNA that is transferred from donor to recipient. Sequence comparisons with other transesterases and helicases suggest that these activities reside in the N- and C-terminal regions of TraI, respectively. Computer-assisted secondary structure probability analysis identified a potential interdomain region spanning residues 304-309. Proteins encoded by segments of traI, whose N or C terminus either flanked or coincided with this region, were purified and assessed for catalytic activity. Amino acids 1-306 contain the transesterase activity, whereas amino acids 309-1504 contain the helicase activity. The C-terminal 252 amino acids of the 1756-amino acid TraI protein are not required for either helicase or transesterase activity. Protein and nucleic acid sequence similarity searches indicate that the occurrence of both transesterase- and helicase-associated motifs in a conjugative DNA transfer initiator protein is rare. Only two examples (other than R100 plasmid TraI) were found: R388 plasmid TrwC and R46 plasmid (pKM101) TraH, belonging to the IncW and IncN groups of broad host range conjugative plasmids, respectively. The most significant structural difference between these proteins and TraI is that TraI contains an additional region of approximately 650 residues between the transesterase domain and the helicase-associated motifs. This region is required for helicase activity.
Patient safety education is a mandated Common Program Requirement of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in all ...medical residency and fellowship programs. Although many hospitals and healthcare environments have general patient safety education tools for trainees, few to none focus on the unique training milieu of pathologists, including a mix of highly automated and manual error-prone processes, frequent multiplicity of events, and lack of direct patient relationships for error disclosure. We established a national Association of Pathology Chairs-Program Directors Section Workgroup focused on patient safety education for pathology trainees entitled Training Residents in Patient Safety (TRIPS). TRIPS included diverse representatives from across the United States, as well as representatives from pathology organizations including the American Board of Pathology, the American Society for Clinical Pathology, the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, the College of American Pathologists, and the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine. Objectives of the workgroup included developing a standardized patient safety curriculum, designing teaching and assessment tools, and refining them with pilot sites. Here we report the establishment of TRIPS as well as data from national needs assessment of Program Directors across the country, who confirmed the need for a standardized patient safety curriculum.
Patient safety education is a mandated Common Program Requirement of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in all ...medical residency and fellowship programs. Although many hospitals and healthcare environments have general patient safety education tools for trainees, few to none focus on the unique training milieu of pathologists, including a mix of highly automated and manual error-prone processes, frequent multiplicity of events, and lack of direct patient relationships for error disclosure. We established a national Association of Pathology Chairs-Program Directors Section Workgroup focused on patient safety education for pathology trainees entitled Training Residents in Patient Safety (TRIPS). TRIPS included diverse representatives from across the United States, as well as representatives from pathology organizations including the American Board of Pathology, the American Society for Clinical Pathology, the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, the College of American Pathologists, and the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine. Objectives of the workgroup included developing a standardized patient safety curriculum, designing teaching and assessment tools, and refining them with pilot sites. Here we report the establishment of TRIPS as well as data from national needs assessment of Program Directors across the country, who confirmed the need for a standardized patient safety curriculum.
Alpha-2-Macroglobulin (A2M) is a highly plausible candidate gene for Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a region of chromosome 12 that has numerous independent reports of genetic linkage. We previously ...reported that a 5 bp deletion in A2M was associated with AD in a subset of the National Institute of Health (NIMH) Genetics Initiative AD family sample. Efforts to replicate this association finding in case – control samples have been largely negative, while those in family samples have been more positive. We hypothesized that variable findings regarding this deletion, along with variable reports of association with V1000I, another polymorphism in the gene, result from linkage disequilibrium in the area as well as ascertainment differences between family-based and case–control studies. Thus, we resequenced the A2M locus to identify novel polymorphisms to test for genetic association with AD. We identified seven novel polymorphisms and tested them in the full NIMH sample of 1439 individuals in 437 families. We found significant genetic association of the 5 bp deletion and two novel polymorphisms with AD. Substantial linkage disequilibrium was detected across the gene as a whole, and haplotype analysis also showed significant association between AD and groups of A2M polymorphisms. Several of these polymorphisms and haplotypes remain significantly associated with AD even after correction for multiple testing. Taken together, these findings, and the positive reports in other family-based studies, continue to support a potential role for A2M or a nearby gene in AD. However, the negative case – control studies suggest that any underlying pathogenic polymorphisms have a modest effect, and may operate primarily among individuals with a family history of AD.
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