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This article examines political subjectivities, community engagements and voting practices among residents of São Paulo’s Zona Sul peripheries in the three years preceding Brazil’s 2018 presidential election. Building on a 398-person household survey, 46 in-depth interviews, and extensive participation observation over the course of a four-year study, we argue that although most residents of our study communities across the political spectrum are disenchanted with institutional politics, many maintain political engagement through their everyday lives, including activism centered on intersectional identities and state-sponsored violence/genocide. Our discussion combines statistical analysis and auto-ethnographic inflected vignettes and is in dialogue with two common themes present in recent analyses of the Brazilian political landscape: the role of urban periphery voters in the election of Bolsonaro, and the complex connections between moralities and political subjectivities. In conclusion, we reflect on opportunities and challenges for progressive political engagement in the (post)Bolsonaro era.

Terminal drought is one of the most common and devastating climatic stress factors affecting durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) production worldwide. The wild relatives of this crop are deemed a vast potential source of useful alleles to adapt to this stress. A nested association mapping (NAM) panel was generated using as a recurrent parent the Moroccan variety ‘Nachit’ derived from Triticum dicoccoides and known for its large grain size. This was recombined to three top-performing lines derived from T. dicoccoides, T. araraticum, and Aegilops speltoides, for a total of 426 inbred progenies. This NAM was evaluated across eight environments (Syria, Lebanon, and Morocco) experiencing different degrees of terminal moisture stress over two crop seasons. Our results showed that drought stress caused on average 41% loss in yield and that 1,000-kernel weight (TKW) was the most important trait for adaptation to it. Genotyping with the 25K TraitGenetics array resulted in a consensus map of 1,678 polymorphic SNPs, spanning 1,723 cM aligned to the reference ‘Svevo’ genome assembly. Kinship distinguished the progenies in three clades matching the parent of origin. A total of 18 stable quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were identified as controlling various traits but independent from flowering time. The most significant genomic regions were named Q.ICD.NAM-04, Q.ICD.NAM-14, and Q.ICD.NAM-16. Allelic investigation in a second germplasm panel confirmed that carrying the positive allele at all three loci produced an average TKW advantage of 25.6% when field-tested under drought conditions. The underlying SNPs were converted to Kompetitive Allele-Specific PCR (KASP) markers and successfully validated in a third germplasm set, where they explained up to 19% of phenotypic variation for TKW under moisture stress. These findings confirm the identification of critical loci for drought adaptation derived from wild relatives that can now be readily exploited via molecular breeding.

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes is characterized by failure to control glucose homeostasis. Diabetes is predicted to more than double, affecting 7.8 million individuals in the Philippines by 2030. This represents a significant major threat to the nation's health and economy. This study offers strategies to help prevent the onset of the disease or to significantly slow its development and the onset of debilitating (and expensive to treat) complications. Methods: C2C12 mouse myotubes were incubated in standard tissue culture media, or media supplemented with 28 mM glucose, 200 µM palmitic acid, and 200 µM oleic acid as a glucolipotoxic cellular model of insulin resistance. Intracellular reactive species content was assayed using 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein diacetate dye, and glucose uptake was determined through 2-deoxy glucose-6-phosphate luminescence. Based on previous data (total phenolics and flavonoid content), ethanolic or decoction extracts of 6 out of 20 local tribe plants were further evaluated for antidiabetic screening. Results: Our data indicated that ethanol or decoction extracts of these six (6) plants, coded as (SMYLD, SKLD, MHLE, SELD, SGLD, and SMLE), significantly protect the cells from these deleterious reactive species. Importantly, two of these plants (SGLD and SMLE) were further evaluated and observed to elicit insulin-sensitizing effects or enhance insulin-dependent glucose uptake. Conclusion: These Mindanaoan plants could potentially be utilized as food supplements to deliver improved health to low-income families across the country with immediate effect. The use of locally available natural sources as potential anti-diabetic agents will make them more accessible and affordable to the communities and thus could offer a low-cost solution to a major healthcare problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture and agri-food systems of the highly vulnerable Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region needs a radical transformation under a changing climate. Based on a two-year effort, initially we developed a mega hypothesis on how to achieve climate-smart agri-food transformation in the region. In the study, we hypothesized that “Climate-Smart Lifts” implemented in the enabling environments can rapidly facilitate agri-food transformation in the region. In order to gather the stakeholders’ perception about this, we organized a collective conversation among ~400 stakeholders that represent various scales and sectors within the agriculture sector in MENA. These “listening cum learning consultations” were conducted through a survey followed by a series of webinars. The webinar discussions were strategically guided based on our hypothesis, the responses from the surveys and the regional needs. These discussions provided a forum to bring-out the stakeholders’ perspective on what new knowledge, partnerships, instruments and projects were needed in the MENA. The deliberation focused on the opportunities of public–private partnerships focusing in all the four major agroecosystems in MENA (irrigated, rainfed, rangelands, and deserts). In result, we developed an effective framework for strategic resource mobilization in the region, keeping in view the strong regional needs for climate actions and the requisite long-term commitments for the SDGs implementation.