Strategies steering intensification pathways of farmers in central Malawi

Carl Timler Jeroen Groot Sieglinde Snapp Pablo Tittonell (2023, [Artículo])

Smallholder farmers face many challenges to improve their livelihoods and food security. Intensification of agricultural production can help to achieve these goals. Yet farmers are highly heterogenous in their strategies towards intensification, potentially following unsustainable intensification pathways. Using Q Methodology, we ascertain different strategies regarding farm improvement and intensification of smallholder farmers in the Dedza and Ntcheu Extension Planning Areas in Central Malawi. These strategies were associated to coherent sequential choices as expressed in “managerial intensification pathways” (MIPs). Three main strategies emerged: Seed Saving Peasants, Aspirant Modern Farmers and Entrepreneurial Business(wo)men. These were subsequently linked to four MIPs. Seed Saving Peasants focus strongly on local seed systems and post-harvest protection of grains, but also allocate more labour to improving crop residue use and manure quality, thus pointing to a labour-oriented MIP. Aspirant Modern Farmers willingly adopt hybrid seeds and inorganic fertilizers but require more extension support; these farmers follow a technology-oriented MIP. Entrepreneurial Business(wo)men are early adopters of new technologies and benefit from improved access to market information and suppliers of new technologies and follow a sustainable technology-based or techno-ecological intensification pathway. This study shows that strongly contrasting perspectives on intensification exist among smallholders and it is expected that their preferred intensification choices will have diverging impacts on the sustainability of their farms. A diversity of extension, advice and incentive instruments will be needed to support farmer decision making towards sustainably intensified farms.

Smallholder Farmers Q Methodology CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA SMALLHOLDERS STRATEGIES SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION

Climate change and agriculture: Adaptation strategies and mitigation opportunities for smallholder farmers in South Asia

Tek Sapkota (2022, [Objeto de congreso])

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGIES CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT FOOD SECURITY FOOD SYSTEMS CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE SMALLHOLDERS

Behavior of private retailers in a regulated input market: An empirical analysis of the fertilizer subsidy policy in Nepal

Shriniwas Gautam Dyutiman Choudhary Dil Bahadur Rahut (2022, [Artículo])

The private sector in Nepal participates in the regulated import and distribution of three types of subsidized fertilizer. However, almost 55% of the agrovets (family-owned microenterprises) that retail agricultural inputs do not comply. Many farmers rely on the fertilizer purchased through these agrovets, including subsidized ones. There is no private sector importer of the three types of fertilizer covered by the subsidy program, which indicates that the agrovets either acquire these through leakage in the government distribution system or through illegal cross-border trade from India, both of which are considered legal noncompliance. We discern the determinants for this noncompliant behavior of agrovets using logistic regression. The results from logistic regression suggest that the agrovets that are more likely to comply are registered, have membership in business associations, and have a higher number of competitors. Those with diversified business portfolios and covering a greater number of districts are less likely to comply. Key informants, consisting of both public and private sector stakeholders, were solicited for their views on solving this noncompliant behavior. The private sector unanimously asserts the need for deregulation of fertilizer imports and the participation of agrovets in the distribution of the subsidized fertilizer. In contrast, the public sector is skeptical of the ability and trustworthiness of the private sector in the import and distribution of quality fertilizer. We propose a middle ground to mitigate private sector noncompliance and suggest a policy revisit to increase the fertilizer supply and distribution efficiency.

Fertilizer Subsidy Policy Input Retailers CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA FERTILIZERS POLICIES MARKET REGULATIONS

Towards an Emotional Validation of Heuristic Approaches for Usability Evaluation

YAZMIN MAGALLANES VELAZQUEZ ARIEL MOLINA RUEDA JOSE ALFREDO SANCHEZ HUITRON MARIBEL YENNY MENDEZ BERNAL (2012, [Artículo])

Este artículo presenta una investigación inicial sobre las maneras en que la evaluación emocional de interfaces de usuario puede extender y validar la evaluación heurística de sistemasinteractivos. Mediante la recolección de respuestas de dos grupos de usuarios, este trabajo seenfoca a detectar si existe una correlación entre la evaluación emocional de aspectos específicos de interfaces de usuario y la evaluación correspondiente realizada por expertos en interacción. Primero se obtuvo retroalimentación de expertos en interacción acerca de los problemas potenciales de una interfaz multi-táctil, con base en un enfoque heurístico. Posteriormente, se plantearon escenarios para observar a usuarios inexpertos y obtener respuestas emocionales a los aspectos considerados problemáticos por los expertos. Nuestros hallazgos iniciales indican que hay una correlación importante entre los aspectos problemáticos señalados por los expertos y las respuestas emocionales de los usuarios inexpertos, pero también que algunos de los aspectos problemáticos no necesariamente implican emociones negativas duraderas. Sugerimos entonces que una evaluación emocional de sistemas interactivos puede enriquecer y validar los enfoques heurísticos para evaluación de usabilidad.

This paper presents an initial investigation on how an emotional assessment of user interfaces may extend and validate the heuristic evaluation of the usability of interactive systems. Through the elicitation of responses from two groups of users, we focused on detecting whether a correlation exists between emotional assessment of specific interface issues and the corresponding evaluation by interaction experts. Using a prototypical multi-tactile interface and a heuristic

approach, we first obtained feedback from interaction experts regarding its potential problems and issues. We then devised scenarios for observing novel users and eliciting their emotional responses to the issues raised by our experts. Our initial findings indicate a significant correlation exists between the issues raised by expert users and the emotional responses of novel users, but also that some of those issues do not necessarily lead to long lasting negative emotions. We thus posit that emotional evaluation of interactive systems may be helpful for enriching and validating heuristic approaches for usability evaluation.

INGENIERÍA Y TECNOLOGÍA Usabilidad Evaluación emocional Evaluación Heurística Interfaces multi-táctiles Usability Emotional evaluation Heuristic evaluation Multi-tactile interfaces

Farmers′ use of climate change adaptation strategies and their impacts on food security in Kenya

Girma Gezmu Gebre Yuichiro Amekawa Asmiro Abeje Fikadu Dil Bahadur Rahut (2023, [Artículo])

Adaptation Strategies Smallholder Farmers CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CLIMATE CHANGE FOOD SECURITY SMALLHOLDERS

Reciprocal recurrent selection based on genetic complementation: An efficient way to build heterosis in diploids due to directional dominance

GIOVANNY COVARRUBIAS-PAZARAN Christian Werner Dorcus Gemenet (2023, [Artículo])

Selection Strategies Reciprocal Recurrent Selection Dominance-Based Heterosis CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA GENETICS HETEROSIS MAIZE HYBRIDS FOOD SECURITY COMBINING ABILITY

Maize ZmBES1/BZR1-3 and-9 transcription factors negatively regulate drought tolerance in transgenic arabidopsis

Fuai Sun XUECAI ZHANG Haoqiang Yu (2022, [Artículo])

BZR1s CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA ARABIDOPSIS DNA BINDING PROTEINS PLANT PROTEIN TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS DROUGHT GENE EXPRESSION REGULATION GENETICS MAIZE METABOLISM TRANSGENIC PLANTS ABIOTIC STRESS

Competencia socioemocional y toma de decisiones en el rendimiento académico de estudiantes universitarios

MAYRA DELGADO VILLALOBOS (2023, [Tesis de doctorado])

Las emociones sociales forman parte de la complejidad interna de una sociedad donde

confluyen niveles de estructura social: las interacciones entre sus individuos, los patrones

de relación entre ellos y sus principios de organización. Las emociones sociales subyacen

a esta complejidad e incluyen mecanismos de autorregulación que permiten a los

individuos desarrollar habilidades socioemocionales para evaluar cuándo y con quién

cooperar o competir, regular las respuestas emocionales y el comportamiento en

situaciones sociales, mantener relaciones de largo plazo, favorecer la prosocialidad y la

cohesión grupal. Estas habilidades son fundamentales en nuestros entornos culturales

dinámicos. Por ello, la OECD las considera habilidades del siglo XXI.

Desde una perspectiva interdisciplinar con énfasis en la cognición social, en la

presente investigación se revisó la importancia y la función de las emociones sociales, y

con base en los diferentes niveles de complejidad social se propone una distinción entre

habilidades y competencias socioemocionales. También se revisaron diversos enfoques

teóricos sobre estas competencias, así como la metodología para su evaluación en la

educación universitaria. Asimismo, se realizó un estudio exploratorio con un diseño

transversal y la muestra se conformó por 104 estudiantes universitarios. El modelo teórico

propuesto se probó mediante ecuaciones estructurales, encontrándose diferencias

significativas entre el compromiso académico y el rendimiento académico, la resiliencia

y el razonamiento.

Social emotions are part of the internal complexity of a society where levels of social

structure converge: the interactions between its individuals, the relationships patterns

between them and their organizational principles. Social emotions underlie this

complexity and include self-regulation mechanisms that allow individuals to develop

socioemotional skills to assess when and with whom to cooperate or compete, regulate

emotional responses and behavior in social situations, maintain long-term relationships,

promote prosociality and group cohesion. These skills are essential in our dynamic

cultural environments. For this reason, the OECD considers them 21st century skills.

From an interdisciplinary perspective with an emphasis on social cognition, this

research reviewed the importance and function of social emotions, and based on the

different levels of social complexity, a distinction between socio-emotional skills and

competencies is proposed. Various theoretical approaches to these competencies were

also reviewed, as well as the methodology for their evaluation in university education.

Likewise, an exploratory study was carried out with a cross-sectional design and the

sample consisted of 104 university students. The proposed theoretical model was tested

using structural equations, finding significant differences between academic commitment

and academic performance, resilience and reasoning.

HUMANIDADES Y CIENCIAS DE LA CONDUCTA PEDAGOGÍA cognición social, desarrollo socioemocional, competencias socioemocionales, evaluación socioemocional y aprendizaje socioemocional. social cognition, social-emotional development, social-emotional competencies, social-emotional assessment and social-emotional learning

Sexual harassment and stalking in female university students: negative emotions and coping with these forms of gender-based violence

Karla Jazmín Rodríguez Hernández ADRIANA RODRIGUEZ BARRAZA Maria Carolina Agoff (2023, [Artículo, Artículo])

Stalking and sexual harassment, as expressions of gender violence in the field of higher education, are very pressing problems as they have been exhibited by the protest movements that have arisen in Higher Education Institutions. The objective of this work is to analyze the narratives of university women who experienced stalking and/or sexual harassment in Higher Education Institutions in the municipalities of Tampico and Ciudad Madero in the state of Tamaulipas. The purpose was to learn about their experiences and their way of dealing with these forms of gender violence, using qualitative research and a phenomenological design. The technique used for data collection was the semi-structured interview. The selection of the informants was based on intentional sampling and the number of cases examined was guided by the saturation criterion, the total number of participants being thirteen. The analysis of the interviews shows that acts of stalking and sexual harassment provoke various emotions in women that can shed light on the problem of violence from the perspective of the victims, instead of considering only their own explanations, which are often rationalized or consistent with socially legitimized meanings. In sum, the study of emotions allows us to conclude that women within the university context suffer from a psychophysical discomfort that does not allow them to live a full university life.

Emociones instituciones de educación superior acoso sexual hostigamiento sexual violencia de género CIENCIAS SOCIALES CIENCIAS SOCIALES Emotions, higher education institutions, sexual stalking, sexual harassment

Procesamiento emocional ante estímulos música-color y su respuesta electrofisiológica en personas con depresión

PABLO VALDÉS ALEMÁN (2024, [Tesis de maestría])

Dado el fenómeno del vínculo emocional que existe entre música y color, este

proyecto exploró los posibles efectos terapéuticos en personas con depresión, al

presentarles estímulos combinados de música con color que, en conjunto, evocan

emociones positivas y placenteras. El proyecto se dividió en tres partes, con el fin

de subsanar los vacíos en la literatura. Primero se evaluaron los 37 colores del

Berkeley Color Project como estímulos capaces de evocar emociones y placer,

distinguibles mediante los modelos de asimetría frontal de alfa (FAA) y de theta con

electroencefalografía (EEG). El segundo estudio exploró los posibles efectos

sinérgicos al combinar música y color de emoción congruente –i.e., misma

emoción–, mediante respuestas subjetivas y EEG. Por último, se probó el impacto

de estímulos música-color positivos y placenteros sobre el estado de ánimo de

personas con depresión, a partir de sus respuestas subjetivas y EEG. Se encontró

que los colores brillantes, alegres y placenteros se asocian con una mayor

activación –supresión de alfa– frontal izquierda, de acuerdo con el modelo de FAA.

En lugar de un efecto sinérgico, los hallazgos mostraron un predominio emocional

hacia la música, reafirmando su poder emocional por encima del color. Por último,

los resultados del tercer estudio demostraron una mejora en el estado de ánimo en

las personas con sintomatología depresiva tras la estimulación. Estos resultados

podrían informar a profesionales de la salud mental sobre nuevos métodos

terapéuticos para ayudar a pacientes con depresión, al conjuntar la musicoterapia

con la cromoterapia.

Given the phenomenon of the emotional link between music and color, this project

explored the possible therapeutic effects on people with depression by presenting

them with combined music-color stimuli that collectively evoke positive and pleasant

emotions. The project was divided into three parts to address gaps in the literature.

Firstly, the 37 colors from the Berkeley Color Project were evaluated as stimuli

capable of evoking emotions and pleasure, distinguishable through the frontal alpha

(FAA) and theta asymmetry models using electroencephalography (EEG). The

second study explored the potential synergic effects by combining music and color

of congruent emotion –i.e., the same emotion– using subjective responses and EEG.

Lastly, the impact of positive and pleasant music-color stimuli on the mood of

individuals with depression was tested based on their subjective responses and

EEG. It was found that bright, joyful, and pleasant colors are associated with

increased activation –alpha suppression– in the left frontal region of the scalp,

according to the FAA model. Instead of a synergic effect, the results showed an

emotional predominance towards music, reaffirming its emotional power over color.

Finally, the results of the third study demonstrated an improvement in the mood of

individuals with depressive symptoms following the stimulation. These findings could

inform mental health professionals about new therapeutic methods to assist patients

with depression by combining music therapy with chromotherapy.

MEDICINA Y CIENCIAS DE LA SALUD CIENCIAS MÉDICAS música, color y emoción; patrones de actividad EEG; Berkeley Color Project; musico-cromoterapia; depresión. music, color, and emotion; EEG activity patterns; Berkeley Color Project; music-chromotherapy; depression.