Supporting the capacities and knowledge of smallholder farmers in Kenya for sustainable agricultural futures: a Citizen Science pilot project.

Sub-Saharan Africa is often presented as the continent most vulnerable to climatic change with major repercussions for food systems. Coupled with high rates of population growth, continued food insecurity and malnutrition, thus the need to enhance food production across the continent is seen as a major global imperative. We argue here, however, that current models of agricultural development in Eastern Africa frequently marginalise critical smallholder knowledge from the process of future agricultural design due to a lack of a methodological tools for engagement. This paper addresses this by outlining a potential means to capture and share locally produced agronomic information on a large scale. We report on a 'Citizen Science' pilot study that worked with smallholder farmers in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Western Kenya, to co-design a mobile application using the well-developed Sapelli platform that easily allows farmers to identify, record and geolocate cropping patterns and challenges at multiple stages in the agricultural calendar using their own understanding. The pilot project demonstrated the technical and epistemological benefits of co-design, the abilities of smallholder farmers to co-design and use smartphone applications, and the potential for such technology to produce and share valuable agricultural and ecological knowledge in real time. Proof-of-concept data illustrates opportunities to spatially and temporally track and respond to challenges related to climate, crop disease and pests. Such work expounds how smallholder farmers are a source of largely untapped ecological and agronomic expert knowledge that can, and should, be harnessed to address issues of future agricultural resilience and food system sustainability.

Music production and its role in coalition signaling during foraging contexts in a hunter-gatherer society.

Music is a cultural activity universally present in all human societies. Several hypotheses have been formulated to understand the possible origins of music and the reasons for its emergence. Here, we test two hypotheses: (1) the coalition signaling hypothesis which posits that music could have emerged as a tool to signal cooperative intent and signal strength of alliances and (2) music as a strategy to deter potential predators. In addition, we further explore the link between tactile cues and the propensity of mothers to sing toward infants. For this, we investigated the singing behaviors of hunter-gatherer mothers during daily foraging trips among the Mbendjele BaYaka in the Republic of the Congo. Although singing is a significant component of their daily activities, such as when walking in the forest or collecting food sources, studies on human music production in hunter-gatherer societies are mostly conducted during their ritual ceremonies. In this study, we collected foraging and singing behavioral data of mothers by using focal follows of five BaYaka women during their foraging trips in the forest. In accordance with our predictions for the coalition signaling hypothesis, women were more likely to sing when present in large groups, especially when group members were less familiar. However, predictions of the predation deterrence hypothesis were not supported as the interaction between group size and distance from the village did not have a significant effect on the likelihood of singing. The latter may be due to limited variation in predation risk in the foraging areas, because of the intense bush meat trade, and hence, future studies should include foraging areas with higher densities of wild animals. Lastly, we found that mothers were more likely to sing when they were carrying infants compared to when infants were close, but carried by others, supporting the prediction that touch plays an important prerequisite role in musical interaction between the mother and child. Our study provides important insight into the role of music as a tool in displaying the intent between or within groups to strengthen potentially conflict-free alliances during joint foraging activities.

I can see myself helping: The effect of self-awareness on prosocial behaviour.

Many studies indicate that increasing self-awareness leads to individuals reflecting on their values and ideals (Silvia & Duval, 2001). This self-reflection appears to increase prosocial behaviour (Berkowitz, 1987). However, previously studies typically manipulated self-awareness in situations in which the individual may have felt pressure from the researcher to help. Thus, experimenter pressure to behave prosocially confounds the self-awareness explanation provided in past research. We used a novel experimental paradigm to manipulate self-awareness and remove the researcher's presence to decrease the likelihood that the participant would conform to experimenter demand. Participants were 36 college students (Mage  = 19.52; 25 women). The results indicated a strong probability that the experimental condition participants were more prosocial than control condition participants. These findings provide additional support for the hypothesis that self-reflection increases prosocial behaviour, even without experimenter demands. These findings and the importance of studying objective self-awareness in light of the coronavirus are discussed.

Ethical considerations when conservation research involves people.

Social science is becoming increasingly important in conservation, with more studies involving methodologies that collect data from and about people. Conservation science is a normative and applied discipline designed to support and inform management and practice. Poor research practice risks harming participants and, researchers, and can leave negative legacies. Often, those at the forefront of field-based research are early-career researchers, many of whom enter their first research experience ill-prepared for the ethical conundrums they may face. We draw on our own experiences as early-career researchers to illuminate how ethical challenges arise during conservation research that involves human participants. Specifically, we considered ethical review procedures, conflicts of values, and power relations, and devised broad recommendations on how to navigate ethical challenges when they arise during research. In particular, we recommend researchers apply reflexivity (i.e., thinking that allows researchers to recognize the effect researchers have on the research) to help navigate ethical challenges and encourage greater engagement with ethical review processes and the development of ethical guidelines for conservation research that involves human participants. Such guidelines must be accompanied by the integration of rigorous ethical training into conservation education. We believe our experiences are not uncommon and can be avoided and hope to spark discussion to contribute to a more socially just conservation.

Consideraciones Éticas cuando la Investigación para la Conservación Involucra a la Gente Resumen Las ciencias sociales cada vez son más importantes para la conservación pues más estudios involucran metodologías que recolectan datos de y sobre la gente. La ciencia de la conservación es una disciplina normativa y aplicada diseñada para apoyar e informar al manejo y a la práctica. La investigación deficiente corre el riesgo de dañar a los participantes y a los investigadores, además de que puede dejar un legado negativo. Es común que investigadores que recién inician sus carreras estén al frente de investigación basada en el campo, muchos de los cuales comenzaron su experiencia mal preparados para los dilemas éticos que podrían enfrentar. Partimos de nuestras propias experiencias como investigadores de carrera temprana para ilustrar cómo emergen los retos éticos durante la investigación para la conservación que incluye a participantes humanos. Específicamente, consideramos los procedimientos de revisión ética, los conflictos de valores y las relaciones de poder y con ellas diseñamos recomendaciones de comité sobre cómo navegar los retos éticos cuando surjan durante la investigación. Particularmente, recomendamos a los investigadores que apliquen la reflexividad (es decir, el pensamiento que permite a los investigadores reconocer el efecto que ellos tienen sobre la investigación) para ayudar a navegar los retos éticos y para alentar un mayor compromiso con los procesos de revisión ética y con el desarrollo de las directrices éticas para la investigación de la conservación que involucra a participantes humanos. Dichas directrices deben estar acompañadas por la integración de un entrenamiento ético riguroso dentro de la educación para la conservación. Creemos que nuestras experiencias no son poco comunes y pueden evitarse y esperamos iniciar una discusión para contribuir a una conservación más justa socialmente.

The role of perceived sleep norms in subjective sleep appraisals and sleep-related illness behavior.

The present investigation sought to extend extant research on subjective sleep complaints by examining their relation to perceived sleep norms. Results from two studies showed that individuals' distress and illness behavior in response to symptoms of fatigue and non-restorative sleep was influenced by their perceptions of peer norms for those symptoms. Individuals who believed they experienced a greater degree of fatigue and non-restorative sleep than their peers reported more distress arising from those symptoms, and were also more likely to seek social support and medical treatment for them. Furthermore, participants who scored higher in neuroticism were more likely to believe they experienced worse fatigue and non-restorative sleep than their peers, and thus reported higher symptom-related distress, and higher likelihood of engaging in illness behaviors. These results provide preliminary evidence of the clinical relevance of perceived norms in the way individuals respond to and manage sleep related problems.

Differences between Pygmy and Non-Pygmy Hunting in Congo Basin Forests.

We use data on game harvest from 60 Pygmy and non-Pygmy settlements in the Congo Basin forests to examine whether hunting patterns and prey profiles differ between the two hunter groups. For each group, we calculate hunted animal numbers and biomass available per inhabitant, P, per year (harvest rates) and killed per hunter, H, per year (extraction rates). We assess the impact of hunting of both hunter groups from estimates of numbers and biomass of prey species killed per square kilometre, and by examining the proportion of hunted taxa of low, medium and high population growth rates as a measure of their vulnerability to overhunting. We then map harvested biomass (kg-1P-1Yr-1) of bushmeat by Pygmies and non-Pygmies throughout the Congo Basin. Hunting patterns differ between Pygmies and non-Pygmies; Pygmies take larger and different prey and non-Pygmies sell more for profit. We show that non-Pygmies have a potentially more severe impact on prey populations than Pygmies. This is because non-Pygmies hunt a wider range of species, and twice as many animals are taken per square kilometre. Moreover, in non-Pygmy settlements there was a larger proportion of game taken of low population growth rate. Our harvest map shows that the non-Pygmy population may be responsible for 27 times more animals harvested than the Pygmy population. Such differences indicate that the intense competition that may arise from the more widespread commercial hunting by non-Pygmies is a far more important constraint and source of conflict than are protected areas.

Knowledge-Sharing Networks in Hunter-Gatherers and the Evolution of Cumulative Culture.

Humans possess the unique ability for cumulative culture [1, 2]. It has been argued that hunter-gatherer's complex social structure [3-9] has facilitated the evolution of cumulative culture by allowing information exchange among large pools of individuals [10-13]. However, empirical evidence for the interaction between social structure and cultural transmission is scant [14]. Here we examine the reported co-occurrence of plant uses between individuals in dyads (which we define as their "shared knowledge" of plant uses) in BaYaka Pygmies from Congo. We studied reported uses of 33 plants of 219 individuals from four camps. We show that (1) plant uses by BaYaka fall into three main domains: medicinal, foraging, and social norms/beliefs; (2) most medicinal plants have known bioactive properties, and some are positively associated with children's BMI, suggesting that their use is adaptive; (3) knowledge of medicinal plants is mainly shared between spouses and biological and affinal kin; and (4) knowledge of plant uses associated with foraging and social norms is shared more widely among campmates, regardless of relatedness, and is important for camp-wide activities that require cooperation. Our results show the interdependence between social structure and knowledge sharing. We propose that long-term pair bonds, affinal kin recognition, exogamy, and multi-locality create ties between unrelated families, facilitating the transmission of medicinal knowledge and its fitness implications. Additionally, multi-family camps with low inter-relatedness between camp members provide a framework for the exchange of functional information related to cooperative activities beyond the family unit, such as foraging and regulation of social life.

Distribution and Numbers of Pygmies in Central African Forests.

Pygmy populations occupy a vast territory extending west-to-east along the central African belt from the Congo Basin to Lake Victoria. However, their numbers and actual distribution is not known precisely. Here, we undertake this task by using locational data and population sizes for an unprecedented number of known Pygmy camps and settlements (n = 654) in five of the nine countries where currently distributed. With these data we develop spatial distribution models based on the favourability function, which distinguish areas with favourable environmental conditions from those less suitable for Pygmy presence. Highly favourable areas were significantly explained by presence of tropical forests, and by lower human pressure variables. For documented Pygmy settlements, we use the relationship between observed population sizes and predicted favourability values to estimate the total Pygmy population throughout Central Africa. We estimate that around 920,000 Pygmies (over 60% in DRC) is possible within favourable forest areas in Central Africa. We argue that fragmentation of the existing Pygmy populations, alongside pressure from extractive industries and sometimes conflict with conservation areas, endanger their future. There is an urgent need to inform policies that can mitigate against future external threats to these indigenous peoples' culture and lifestyles.

Preclinical safety and pharmacokinetic profile of ferumoxtran-10, an ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide magnetic resonance contrast agent.

OBJECTIVES: This report presents an overview of preclinical data available on ferumoxtran-10, an ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticular contrast agent proposed for lymph node magnetic resonance imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pharmacokinetic, safety pharmacology, single- and repeat-dose toxicity, reproduction toxicity, and genotoxicity studies were performed with ferumoxtran-10 given intravenously (bolus injection) in mice, rats, rabbits, dogs, and monkeys. RESULTS: Ferumoxtran-10 was taken up by macrophages, mostly in liver, spleen, and lymph nodes, within 24 hours after bolus injection and underwent progressive metabolism. Toxicity was observed only at very high exposure levels and mainly was linked to a massive iron load after repeated injections. Ferumoxtran-10 was not mutagenic but was teratogenic in rats and rabbits. DISCUSSION: The preclinical pharmacokinetic and safety profile of ferumoxtran-10 appears to be satisfactory in view of its proposed use as a single-dose diagnostic agent in human for MR imaging of lymph nodes.

First-pass contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography in humans using ferumoxytol, a novel ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO)-based blood pool agent.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the feasibility of first-pass contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) using ferumoxytol in humans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: First-pass and equilibrium phase MRA were performed using ferumoxytol in one healthy volunteer and 11 patients with a fast three-dimensional spoiled gradient recalled (SPGR) pulse sequence. The examined vessels included carotid arteries, thoracic aorta, abdominal aorta, and peripheral arteries. A dose of either 71.6 micromol Fe/kg (n = 9), or 35.8 micromol Fe/kg (n = 3) was used. Based on a phantom study, the agent with initial concentration of 537.2 micromol Fe/mL was diluted by either four-fold (134.3 micromol Fe/mL) or eight-fold (67.1 micromol Fe/mL) for first-pass MRA. RESULTS: All subjects completed their studies without adverse events. First-pass MRA showed selective arterial enhancement, with both arterial and venous enhancement on delayed acquisitions. Selective venous enhancement could be obtained by subtraction of arterial phase images from equilibrium phase images. The findings in ferumoxytol MRA were consistent with the results of original vascular tests. CONCLUSION: Our preliminary experience supports the feasibility of first-pass MRA with ferumoxytol. Satisfactory arterial enhancement during first-pass imaging is obtained with injection of diluted contrast agent. With ferumoxytol, arteries and veins can be selectively depicted in a single exam.