| 1. |
- Andersson, Elina, et al.
(författare)
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'Because of poverty, we had to come together': collective action for improved food security in rural Kenya and Uganda
- 2012
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Ingår i: International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1473-5903 .- 1747-762X. ; 10:3, s. 245-262
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Agricultural productivity in East African smallholder systems is notoriously low and food production faces multiple challenges, including soil degradation, decreasing land availability, poor market integration, disease burdens and climate change impacts. However, recent evidence from an in-depth study from two sites in Kenya and Uganda shows signs of new social dynamics as a response to these multiple stressors. This paper focuses on the emergence of local social institutions for collective action, in which particularly women farmers organize themselves. Although previous research on collective action has largely focused on common-pool resource management, we argue that collective action is one potential pathway to livelihood and sustainability improvements also in a setting of private land ownership. Trust building, awareness raising and actions to improve livelihood security through risk sharing and pooling of labour and other limited assets have given people more time and resources available for diversification, preventative activities, experimentation and resource conservation. It thereby strengthens farmers' capacity to cope with and adapt to change, as well as contributes to the agency at the local level.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Elina
(författare)
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Fertile grounds? : Collective strategies and the political ecology of soil management in Uganda
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Proceeding from land degradation and soil fertility decline in sub-Saharan African smallholder agriculture and drawing on empirical research with smallholder farmers in Tororo district in south-eastern Uganda (2010-2012), this thesis identifies local collective strategies in response to changing livelihood conditions. In an attempt to co-produce knowledge with a transformative potential, the thesis also illustrates how action research can be employed to envision, implement and evaluate a locally anchored practice to improve soil fertility, namely the use of human urine as a crop fertilizer. The research shows that effective responses to land degradation must acknowledge the multiple stressors of smallholder farming and thus go beyond current technocratic and managerial approaches. To do this, soil fertility decline is best understood as a socially, politically and agro-ecologically integrated issue. Collective action mediated by farmer groups, in which women in particular engage, can be a significant response to everyday constraints and vulnerabilities, not only for overcoming barriers that may obstruct individual coping strategies but also for enhancing farmers’ capacities to manage land sustainably. However, findings also indicate that collective action is no universal remedy; the ability to participate in and benefit from collective action is socially differentiated and numerous structural barriers limit the type of change that can be achieved through local self-organisation. In support of sustainability science and sustainability alike, the thesis makes three contributions to ways of ‘thinking and doing’ political ecology: by engaging critically with narratives on land degradation; by advancing understandings of the merits and limits of collective action in the context of rural livelihoods; and by providing insights on solutions-oriented research.
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| 3. |
- Andersson, Elina, et al.
(författare)
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The Political Ecology of Land Degradation
- 2011
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Ingår i: Annual Review of Environment and Resources. - : Annual Reviews. - 1545-2050 .- 1543-5938. ; 36, s. 295-319
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Land degradation, as a threat to smallholders in the tropics, attracts less attention than other global challenges. In addition, gaps between scientific understandings of land degradation and international policy regimes are problematic. We identify the three most significant debates including their different policy implications: desertification in the Sahel, nutrient depletion in Africa, and rural reforms in China. Using a political ecology frame across disciplines, scales of inquiry, and regional experiences, we nuance the often polarized scientific debate while seeking to bridge the gap between science and policy. Three main findings emerge: State-led rural reforms in China represent an important approach to land degradation; a renewed focus on agriculture and sustainability in development discourses opens new ways for tackling nutrient depletion with combined sociotechnological reforms; and a policy void in Africa paves the way for market mechanisms, such as payment for environmental services, that are insufficiently understood and put fairness at risk.
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| 4. |
- Andersson, Elina
(författare)
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Turning waste into value: using human urine to enrich soils for sustainable food production in Uganda
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526. ; 96, s. 290-298
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article builds on an action research process involving Ugandan smallholder farmers in collaborative experimentation on the use of human urine as a crop fertilizer. The aim is to explore farmers' perceptions and evaluation of the practice as a potential and partial solution to soil productivity problems. Findings show that urine fertilization is valued as a low-cost and low-risk practice contributing to significant yield increases, suggesting important contributions to food security and income, especially for those who have few options in soil nutrient management. Weaknesses identified by farmers relate mainly to limitations in collection and storage capacity rather than to inherent traits of the practice. In conclusion, urine fertilization should be acknowledged as a valuable strategy for supporting sustainable agricultural intensification. Furthermore, the importance of social norms and cultural perceptions should be recognized but not treated as absolute barriers to diffusion of the practice. Collective action, where groups of farmers jointly develop new procedures and adapt practices, serves as an important arena for social change and negotiation of norms and taboos, which can otherwise limit the acceptance and diffusion of alternative soil management practices. The research finally illustrates that transdisciplinary research can guide pathways towards sustainability through locally anchored and solutions-oriented knowledge generation.
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| 5. |
- Andersson, Håkan S., et al.
(författare)
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The alpha-defensin salt-bridge induces backbone stability to facilitate folding and confer proteolytic resistance
- 2012
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Ingår i: Amino Acids. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0939-4451 .- 1438-2199. ; 43:4, s. 1471-1483
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Salt-bridge interactions between acidic and basic amino acids contribute to the structural stability of proteins and to protein-protein interactions. A conserved salt-bridge is a canonical feature of the alpha-defensin antimicrobial peptide family, but the role of this common structural element has not been fully elucidated. We have investigated mouse Paneth cell alpha-defensin cryptdin-4 (Crp4) and peptide variants with mutations at Arg(7) or Glu(15) residue positions to disrupt the salt-bridge and assess the consequences on Crp4 structure, function, and stability. NMR analyses showed that both (R7G)-Crp4 and (E15G)-Crp4 adopt native-like structures, evidence of fold plasticity that allows peptides to reshuffle side chains and stabilize the structure in the absence of the salt-bridge. In contrast, introduction of a large hydrophobic side chain at position 15, as in (E15L)-Crp4 cannot be accommodated in the context of the Crp4 primary structure. Regardless of which side of the salt-bridge was mutated, salt-bridge variants retained bactericidal peptide activity with differential microbicidal effects against certain bacterial cell targets, confirming that the salt-bridge does not determine bactericidal activity per se. The increased structural flexibility induced by salt-bridge disruption enhanced peptide sensitivity to proteolysis. Although sensitivity to proteolysis by MMP7 was unaffected by most Arg(7) and Glu(15) substitutions, every salt-bridge variant was degraded extensively by trypsin. Moreover, the salt-bridge facilitates adoption of the characteristic alpha-defensin fold as shown by the impaired in vitro refolding of (E15D)-proCrp4, the most conservative salt-bridge disrupting replacement. In Crp4, therefore, the canonical alpha-defensin salt-bridge facilitates adoption of the characteristic alpha-defensin fold, which decreases structural flexibility and confers resistance to degradation by proteinases.
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| 6. |
- Bettini, Giovanni, et al.
(författare)
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Sand Waves and Human Tides: Exploring Environmental Myths on Desertification and Climate-Induced Migration
- 2014
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Ingår i: The Journal of Environment & Development. - : SAGE Publications. - 1552-5465 .- 1070-4965. ; 23:1, s. 160-185
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In spite of the growing attention to climate-induced migration, a coherent understanding of the matter is lackingas any articulated governance strategy. Although such an impasse relates to the unprecedented socioecological processes involved, we argue that many of the challenges posed by climate-induced migration are not unique in the history of global environmental governance. Proceeding from this, we compare climate migration with the issue of desertification. Drawing upon the concept of environmental myth developed in Political Ecology, we identify common themes such as scientism, vagueness, and ambiguities in the definitions, and a tendency to envision one-fits-all solutions that overlook the multiscalar phenomena involved. We discuss how these traits have contributed to the failure of the desertification regime. Consequently, we propose that climate migration debates should move beyond such deficiencies, to avoid the consolidation of policy responses reproducing the same problems that have characterized the regime on desertification.
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| 7. |
- Buitrago, Elina, et al.
(författare)
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High Throughput Screening of a Catalyst Library for the Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation of Heteroaromatic Ketones : Formal Syntheses of (R)-Fluoxetine and (S)-Duloxetine
- 2012
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Ingår i: ChemCatChem. - : Wiley. - 1867-3880 .- 1867-3899. ; 4:12, s. 2082-2089
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A total of 21 amino acid based ligands including hydroxy amide, thioamide, and hydroxamic acid functionalities, respectively, were combined with [Ru(p-cymene)Cl2]2 and [RhCp*Cl2]2, and used as catalysts for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of four different heteroaromatic ketones in 2-propanol. The reactions were performed on a Chemspeed automated high-throughput screening robotic platform. Optimal catalysts were identified for the individual heterocyclic substrate classes. Based on these results, the formal syntheses of the antidepressant drugs (R)-fluoxetine and (S)-duloxetine were conducted by using the found catalysts in the key reaction step, which results in high isolated yields (94?%) and excellent product enantioselectivities (>99?% ee) of the formed 1,3-amino alcohols.
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| 8. |
- Buitrago, Elina, et al.
(författare)
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Selective reduction of heteroaromatic ketones: A combinatorial approach
- 2011
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The enantioselective reduction of prochiral ketones is a most productiveway towards enantio enriched secondary alcohols used in the preparation of biologically active compounds. There are numerous transition metal catalyzed methods for this transformation, particularly based on Ru(II)-and Rh(I)-complexes, but there is a demand for a larger substrate scope. Heteroaromatic ketones are traditionally more challenging substrates. Normally a catalyst is developed for one benchmark substrate, and asubstrate screen is made with the best performing catalyst. Using this methodology, there is a high probability that for different substrates, another catalyst could outperform the one used. We have executed a multiple screen, containing a variety of different ligands together with both Ru and Rh, and heteroaromatic ketones to fine-tune, and find the optimum catalyst depending on the substrate. The acquired information was used to synthesize known, biologically active compounds, where the key reduction steps were performed with high enantioselectivities and yields.
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| 9. |
- Doring, Nora, et al.
(författare)
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Primary prevention of childhood obesity through counselling sessions at Swedish child health centres : design, methods and baseline sample characteristics of the PRIMROSE cluster-randomised trial
- 2014
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Ingår i: BMC Public Health. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2458. ; 14:335
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Childhood obesity is a growing concern in Sweden. Children with overweight and obesity run a high risk of becoming obese as adults, and are likely to develop comorbidities. Despite the immense demand, there is still a lack of evidence-based comprehensive prevention programmes targeting pre-school children and their families in primary health care settings. The aims are to describe the design and methodology of the PRIMROSE cluster-randomised controlled trial, assess the relative validity of a food frequency questionnaire, and describe the baseline characteristics of the eligible young children and their mothers. Methods/Design: The PRIMROSE trial targets first-time parents and their children at Swedish child health centres (CHC) in eight counties in Sweden. Randomisation is conducted at the CHC unit level. CHC nurses employed at the participating CHC received training in carrying out the intervention alongside their provision of regular services. The intervention programme, starting when the child is 8-9 months of age and ending at age 4, is based on social cognitive theory and employs motivational interviewing. Primary outcomes are children's body mass index and waist circumference at four years. Secondary outcomes are children's and mothers' eating habits (assessed by a food frequency questionnaire), and children's and mothers' physical activity (measured by accelerometer and a validated questionnaire), and mothers' body mass index and waist circumference. Discussion: The on-going population-based PRIMROSE trial, which targets childhood obesity, is embedded in the regular national (routine) preventive child health services that are available free-of-charge to all young families in Sweden. Of the participants (n = 1369), 489 intervention and 550 control mothers (75.9%) responded to the validated physical activity and food frequency questionnaire at baseline (i.e., before the first intervention session, or, for children in the control group, before they reached 10 months of age). The food frequency questionnaire showed acceptable relative validity when compared with an 8-day food diary. We are not aware of any previous RCT, concerned with the primary prevention of childhood obesity through sessions at CHC that addresses healthy eating habits and physical activity in the context of a routine child health services programme.
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| 10. |
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