Philosophical Arguments for Individuals, Memberships, and Collectives in States of Guilt or Shame

While there is ample evidence that people experience collective guilt and shame, many philosophers and laypeople reject such experiences as unjustified either because they reject emotions as significant realms of experience or because they dismiss the possibility of collective agency and therefore find guilt or shame feelings about collective acts, like those leading to climate change, absurd. Chapter 4 addresses these concerns, building an account of collective agency, responsibility, and identity that demonstrates the importance of moral emotions including those of collectives. This argument draws on but extends the work of multiple philosophers and theologians including Karl Jaspers, Larry May, and Tracy Lynn Isaacs to argue that individuals, memberships, and collectives can be guilty and shameful and that collective and individual guilt and/or shame do not reduce to each other. Collectives have identity, agency, and a form of intent that is more than the sum of their constituent agents. Collectives include both well-defined collectives, such as corporations or nations, and diffuse collectives such as people living resource-intensive capitalist lives and/or supercollectives––those which are larger than but not reducible to collectives. They may contribute to climate change alongside individuals, membership groups, and well-defined collectives. The chapter also argues why in some cases it is not only possible but also appropriate to experience environmental guilt and shame about climate change as an individual or collective.

Open Science Datasets from PREVENT-AD, a Longitudinal Cohort of Pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s Disease

ABSTRACTTo move Alzheimer Disease (AD) research forward it is essential to collect data from large cohorts, but also make such data available to the global research community. We describe the creation of an open science dataset from the PREVENT-AD (PResymptomatic EValuation of Experimental or Novel Treatments for AD) cohort, composed of cognitively unimpaired older individuals with a parental or multiple-sibling history of AD. From 2011 to 2017, 386 participants were enrolled (mean age 63 years old ± 5) for sustained investigation among whom 349 have retrospectively agreed to share their data openly. Repositories are findable through the unified interface of the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (https://portal.conp.ca/) and contain up to five years of longitudinal imaging data, cerebral fluid biochemistry, neurosensory capacities, cognitive, genetic, and medical information. Imaging data can be accessed openly at https://openpreventad.loris.ca while most of the other information, sensitive by nature, is accessible by qualified researchers at https://registeredpreventad.loris.ca. In addition to being a living resource for continued data acquisition, PREVENT-AD offers opportunities to facilitate understanding of AD pathogenesis.

Transformations, Changes, and Continuities in Conservation Governance: A Case Study of Wildlife Conservation in Kenya, 1980–2016

Global conservation policy and governance has undergone significant changes since the publication of World Conservation Strategy: Living Resource Conservation for Sustainable Development. The strategy sought to integrate conservation and development deviating from the practice under fortress conservation, which considers the two concepts incompatible. What has this significant shift in approach meant for conservation governance at lower levels (i.e., national and sub-national) of governance? This article explores this question in the context of wildlife conservation in Kenya. The article is premised on field data collected in the country during the months of June, July, and August 2016 using mixed methods: key informant interview, household survey, and document review. It documents transformation, change, and continuity in conservation governance in Kenya during 1980–2016. The article also identifies three emerging concerns that hinder sustainable wildlife conservation in Kenya: elitism, green grabbing, and donor-dependency.

Growth evaluation of all male prawn and tilapia in ponds of northern Bangladesh

Freshwater aquaculture is by far the most ancient aquatic living resource production system known in the world. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth performance of prawn and tilapia (male) under different sex (male and female) contribution of prawn in polyculture ponds for a period of four months from September 2010 to December 2010. The experiment was designed with 3 treatments like T1 (All male Tilapia– 4938/ha + All male Prawn 19,753/ha), T2 (All male Tilapia – 4938 / ha + All female Prawn 19,753/ha) and T3 (All male Tilapia – 4938/ decimal + all male Prawn 19876 + all female prawn 19876/ha), each with 2 replications. The mean stocking weight of prawn was 2.87 g and that of tilapia was 37.36 g. Total stocking density of prawn and tilapia (24,691/ha), basal fertilization (Cowdung 2470kg/ha, Urea 50kg/ha and TSP 50kg/ha), periodic fertilization (Cowdung 50kg/ha/day, urea 1.25kg/ha/day and TSP 1.25kg/ha/day) and feeding regime (diet containing 30% protein level at the rate of 2-5% of prawn and fish body weight twice daily) were same for all the treatments. Water quality parameters (water temperature, transparency, dissolved oxygen, pH, NH3-N and alkalinity) were monitored fortnightly and the growth parameters were monitored monthly. Mean values of water quality parameters were found within the suitable range. Treatment T1 varied more significantly (P<0.05) than that of others for the mean values of growth parameters (final weight, weight gain, SGR, survival rate and yield) of prawn and tilapia.Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. June 2017, 3(2): 198-204

Potensi rumput laut: Kajian komponen bioaktif dan pemanfaatannya sebagai pangan fungsional

Rumput laut merupakan sumber daya hayati yang sangat berlimpah di perairan Indonesia. Namun demikian pemanfaatannya untuk pengolahan produk pangan sangat terbatas, terutama untuk produk pangan fungsional. Rumput laut berpotensi dikembangkan sebagai produk pangan fungsional karena mengandung zat gizi dan komponen bioaktif yang berkhasiat untuk kesehatan. Rumput laut mengandung sejumlah komponen bioaktif seperti senyawa fenolik, pigmen alami, polisakarida sulfat, serat dan komponen bioaktif lainnya yang telah diteliti berkhasiat untuk kesehatan. Untuk dapat dikembangkan sebagai produk pangan fungsional, rumput laut yang digunakan harus bebas dari cemaran logam berat dan bahan pencemar lainnya, harus mengandung komponen bioaktif dan zat gizi yang tinggi sehingga harus ada penerapan standar penanaman dan penanganan pasca panen yang baik di tingkat petani rumput laut. Selain itu Proses pengolahan pangan yang diterapkan tidak merusak komponen bioaktif yang terkandung dalam rumput laut. Optimalisasi pengolahan rumput laut sebagai produk pangan fungsional merupakan alternative pemanfaatan potensi rumput laut Indonesia yang dapat meningkatkan nilai ekonomi rumput laut dan yang lebih penting dapat menyediaakan akses pangan sehat bagi masyarakat luas.Seaweed is a living resource that is abundantly available in Indonesian water. However, its utilization in food processing is very limited, especially as functional food products. Seaweed has the potential to be developed as functional food products because it has nutrient and bioactive components that are beneficial for health. Seaweed has a number of bioactive components such as phenolic compound, natural pigment, polysaccharide sulphate, fiber and other bioactive components that has been studied to be advantageous for health. For a seaweed to be developed into functional food product, it must be free from heavy metal and other pollutant contamination, and must contain bioactive components and high nutrients, thus, a good cultivation and postharvest handling standard have to be applied in seaweed farmer level. Moreover, the food processing applied should not damage the bioactive component within the seaweed. Optimization of seaweed processing into functional food product is an alternative for seaweed potential utilization in Indonesia, which could improve the economic value of the seaweed, and more importantly it could provide access for healthy food for community.

Targeting bigger schools can reduce ecosystem impacts of fisheries

Sustainability of living resource exploitation relies on an ecosystem management approach. Within tropical tuna purse seine fisheries using fish aggregating devices (FADs), such an approach incorporates the reduction of bycatch, in particular vulnerable species such as elasmobranchs. The levels of total bycatch (in mass) from fishing operations using FADs is known to be five times higher than when tuna are caught in free-swimming schools. We intend to find practical solutions to reduce bycatch in FAD sets through the investigation of the relationships between the ratio of bycatch to target catch across different set size classes in all oceans. Ratios were always highest when catches were small, with the smallest class of catches responsible for the highest total portion of bycatch (23%–43%) while only contributing negligibly to the total target catch (3%–10%). Reducing the number of fishing sets (a part of the total effort) while maintaining the same total yield could contribute to a substantial reduction in the impacts of human activities.