Context Matters for Food Security: Multi-Sited Evidence of Shared Cultural Models of Food Consumption.

Anthropologists have long emphasized the social significance of foods and the contexts in which they are consumed. Expanding on this idea, we define the context of consumption as the non-eating behaviors that surround eating, such as the manner of food preparation, food sharing, and dietary patterns. In this study, we used cultural consensus analysis to assess whether there exist consistently shared, normative ideas about preferable context of food consumption in three diverse research sites: urban Ethiopia, rural Brazil, and rural Haiti. Our analysis demonstrates that in all three communities, there are distinct sets of behaviors that people identified as non-preferable because they reliably associate them with poverty and food insecurity, and behaviors that people identify as preferable because they reliably associate them with wealth and food security. Across the settings, there was little variation in agreement about behaviors across household composition, age, gender, and food security status. These findings suggest that people do indeed share culturally specific ideas about the context in which foods should be prepared and consumed, beyond the actual content of one's diet. Exploring these cultural models elucidates the social consequences of food insecurity, enabling researchers to better examine the relationship between food insecurity, social context, and well-being.

Wounding and methyl jasmonate increase cyanogenic glucoside concentrations in Sorghum bicolor via upregulation of biosynthesis.

The cyanogenic glucoside, dhurrin, present in Sorghum bicolor is thought to have multiple functions, including in defence against herbivory. The hormone methyl jasmonate (MeJA) is also induced by herbivory and is key to instigating defence processes in plants. To investigate whether dhurrin is induced in response to herbivore attack and also to the associated presence of MeJA, sorghum plants were either wounded or exogenous MeJA was applied. We show that specific wounding (pin board and perforation) and the application of MeJA increases dhurrin concentration in leaves and sheath tissue 12 h after treatment. Quantitative PCR shows that the expression of two genes, SbCYP79A1 and SbUGT85B1, involved in the synthesis of dhurrin are significantly induced by exogenous MeJA and by wounding. Analysis of 2 kb of sequence upstream of the start codon of SbCYP79A1 identifies several cis-acting elements that have been linked to MeJA induction. A promoter deletion series, coupled to GFP, and transiently expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana suggests that there are potentially three sequence motifs (~-925 to -976) involved in the binding of transcription factors that result in increased expression of SbCYP79A1 and the synthesis of dhurrin in response to MeJA.

Characterization of an ammonium transport protein from the peribacteroid membrane of soybean nodules.

Nitrogen-fixing bacteroids in legume root nodules are surrounded by the plant-derived peribacteroid membrane, which controls nutrient transfer between the symbionts. A nodule complementary DNA (GmSAT1) encoding an ammonium transporter has been isolated from soybean. GmSAT1 is preferentially transcribed in nodules and immunoblotting indicates that GmSAT1 is located on the peribacteroid membrane. [14C]methylammonium uptake and patch-clamp analysis of yeast expressing GmSAT1 demonstrated that it shares properties with a soybean peribacteroid membrane NH4^{+ channel described elsewhere. GmSAT1 is likely to be involved in the transfer of fixed nitrogen from the bacteroid to the host.}

The integration of idioms of distress into mental health assessments and interventions: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric diagnostic manuals recognise the importance of local expressions of distress in culturally diverse settings [i.e. idioms/cultural concepts of distress (CCDs)], yet there is a lack of consensus on how these should be incorporated into mental health related research. AIMS: To perform a narrative synthesis and critical review of research exploring how idioms/CCDs have been integrated into assessment measures and interventions. METHOD: A systematic review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. An adapted version of the COSMIN checklist was used to assess the quality of the linguistic translation of the idioms/CCDs. RESULTS: Twenty-nine papers were included in the final review. Primary qualitative research was the most common method of gathering information about idioms/CCDs. The majority of studies described integrating idioms/CCDs into assessment measures as opposed to interventions. Some studies used information relating to idioms/CCDs to develop novel assessment measures, while others adapted pre-existing assessment measures. The measures generated moderate to high levels of validity. Information relating to the linguistic translation conducted in the completion of the studies tended to be inadequately reported. CONCLUSIONS: Integrating information about idioms/CCDs into assessment measures can enhance the validity of these assessments. Allocating greater research attention to idioms/CCDs can also promote more equitable exchanges of knowledge about mental health and wellbeing between the Global North and the Global South.

Adapting culturally appropriate mental health screening tools for use among conflict-affected and other vulnerable adolescents in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: The Boko Haram insurgency has brought turmoil and instability to Nigeria, generating a large number of internally displaced people and adding to the country's 17.5 million orphans and vulnerable children. Recently, steps have been taken to improve the mental healthcare infrastructure in Nigeria, including revamping national policies and initiating training of primary care providers in mental healthcare. In order for these efforts to succeed, they require means for community-based detection and linkage to care. A major gap preventing such efforts is the shortage of culturally appropriate, valid screening tools for identifying emotional and behavioral disorders among adolescents. In particular, studies have not conducted simultaneous validation of screening tools in multiple languages, to support screening and detection efforts in linguistically diverse populations. We aim to culturally adapt screening tools for emotional and behavioral disorders for use among adolescents in Nigeria, in order to facilitate future validation studies. METHODS: We used a rigorous mixed-method process to culturally adapt the Depression Self Rating Scale, Child PTSD Symptom Scale, and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Rating Scale. We employed expert translations, focus group discussions (N = 24), and piloting with cognitive interviewing (N = 24) to achieve semantic, content, technical, and criterion equivalence of screening tool items. RESULTS: We identified and adapted items that were conceptually difficult for adolescents to understand, conceptually non-equivalent across languages, considered unacceptable to discuss, or stigmatizing. Findings regarding problematic items largely align with existing literature regarding cross-cultural adaptation. CONCLUSIONS: Culturally adapting screening tools represents a vital first step toward improving community case detection.