Agricultural intensification, now commonly referred to as sustainable intensification, is presented in development discourse as a key means to simultaneously improve food security and reduce rural poverty without harming the environment. Taking a village in Laos as a case study, we show how government agencies and farmers could perceive the idea of agricultural intensification differently. The study illustrates how farmers with the opportunities for groundwater use typically choose to grow vegetables and high valued cash crops rather than intensify rice production. (...) This contrasts with government and donor supported efforts to promote rice intensification as a means to increase food security and reduce rural poverty. The article’s main message is that farmers’ differing strategies are related to a variety of household characteristics and that farmers’ strategies should be central to the current discussion on sustainable intensification. (shrink)

Diego Pérez de Valdivia (1525-1589), uno de los más brillantes discípulos de Juan de Ávila, biblista y profesor de Sagrada Escrituras, ha sido autor de un sermón que se transcribe aquí por primera vez y del que se ofrece una propuesta interpretativa. Por carecer de lugar y año, resulta especialmente problemática su contextualización en la biografía del sacerdote baezano y, en general, en el marco de su época. Sin embargo, la textura espiritual del sermón y la forma de vertebrar el (...) lenguaje religioso en él, dibujan un escenario catequético en el cual este sermón, dedicado al capítulo 22 del evangelio de Mateo, se insertaría como una pieza clave. Diego Pérez podría dirigirse no solo a un público indiferenciado sino también o, especialmente, a un sector de indecisos, dudosos o simplemente de católicos, cuyo arraigo en la fe cristiana, fuera o no reciente, arrastaba un profundo déficit de formación religiosa. (shrink)

Is brain structure related to function? Can one predict the other? These are questions that are still waiting to be answered definitively. In this paper we seek to investigate these questions, in particular, we are interested in the relation between brain structure and theory of mind. ToM is defined as the ability to attribute mental states to others. Previous studies have observed correlations between performance on ToM tasks, and gray-matter size/volume in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction and precuneus. Despite these (...) findings, there are concerns about false positive results and replicability issues. In this study we used two different tasks to evaluate ToM, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, and the Short Story Task. Performance in these tasks was correlated to brain anatomy measures including voxel-based morphometry and cortical thickness analysis, from ninety-one neurotypical participants. High-resolution structural brain images were acquired, and whole-brain and region of interest analyses were implemented. The analyses did not show statistically significant associations between ToM performance and brain structural measures after correction. Significant associations between performance on ToM tests and a widespread array of regions loosely associated with ToM were observed only for whole brain uncorrected analysis. These results do not replicate a previous study with neurotypical participants. We tested two different ToM tests, two different softwares for VBM and CT, and we used two samples, one with 91 and a sub-sample with 69 participants. Neither of these conditions made a difference in the results obtained. Consequently, these results suggest that if the population is neurotypical and homogenous, it is unlikely that a reliable association between brain anatomy measures and ToM performance, as measured with these tasks, may be found. (shrink)

Philosophers of history posit a class of concepts known as colligatory concepts that contribute to historical consciousness and that refer specifically to historical events. Although analysis has identified colligatory concepts in historical discourse, these concepts have not yet been investigated empirically. We present a new methodology for studying these concepts and historical consciousness more broadly, as well as pilot data supporting the methodology. Our aim in the pilot study was to establish whether colligatory concepts are processed differently from control concepts (...) when subjects are asked to judge historical statements. We compared judgments of colligatory concepts in healthy participants and in a patient group with impaired working memory cognitive processing capacity. Forty healthy, college-educated participants and 25 patients with Parkinson's disease were asked to rate narrative sentences containing historical content and an equal number of identically constructed narrative sentences of equ.. (shrink)

During the perinatal period, the establishment of the attachment relationship with the fetus and subsequently with the real child is crucial for the parents' and the child's well-being. Coherently with the assumption that the attachment relationship starts to develop during pregnancy, this systematic review aims to analyze and systematize studies focused on the association between pre-natal attachment and parent-to-infant attachment, in order to clarify the emerging results and provide useful information for clinical purposes. Nineteen studies were included. Sixteen researches identified (...) a positive relationship between pre-natal attachment and parent-to-infant attachment, and three articles highlighted a negative association between antenatal attachment and post-partum bonding disorders. These results were found both in women and men, in normative and at-risk pregnancies, adopting different assessment approaches. However, only small or moderate associations were found. Future studies are needed to further confirm these findings across different populations and with different methodological approaches. Moreover, studies would be needed in order to clarify mechanisms through which pre-natal attachment influences parent-to-infant attachment, as well as protective and risk factors which intervene between these two variables. (shrink)