Transcriptome and metabolome profiling identify factors potentially involved in pro-vitamin A accumulation in cassava landraces

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a predominant food security crop in several developing countries. Its storage roots, rich in carbohydrate, are deficient in essential micronutrients, including provitamin A carotenoids. Increasing carotenoid content in cassava storage roots is important to reduce the incidence of vitamin A deficiency, a public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. However, cassava improvement advances slowly, mainly due to limited information on the molecular factors influencing β-carotene accumulation in cassava. To address this problem, we performed comparative transcriptomic and untargeted metabolic analyses of roots and leaves of eleven African cassava landraces ranging from white to deep yellow colour, to uncover regulators of carotenoid biosynthesis and accumulation with conserved function in yellow cassava roots. Sequence analysis confirmed the presence of a mutation, known to influence β-carotene content, in PSY transcripts of deep yellow but not of pale yellow genotypes. We identified genes and metabolites with expression and accumulation levels significantly associated with β-carotene content. Particularly an increased activity of the abscisic acid catabolism pathway together with a reduced amount of L-carnitine, may be related to the carotenoid pathway flux, higher in yellow than in white storage roots. In fact, NCED_3.1 was specifically expressed at a lower level in all yellow genotypes suggesting that it could be a potential target for increasing carotenoid accumulation in cassava. These results expand the knowledge on metabolite compositions and molecular mechanisms influencing carotenoid biosynthesis and accumulation in cassava and provide novel information for biotechnological applications and genetic improvement of cassava with high nutritional values.

Co-constructing a decolonising praxis in academia through dialogues and pedagogical experiences between the UK and Ecuador

As demanded by Argentinian cartoonist Quino's (2014) character Libertad (meaning freedom), the Latin American tradition of Liberation Psychology has explicitly called for a decolonising praxis since the 1970s. Such call has implications for training courses in psychology and other fields related to health and wellbeing, such as psychiatrists or social workers. However, there are various challenges in translating a decolonial rhetoric into concrete practice within the classroom, research and practice placements. This paper presents an account of experience and dialogues between two liberatory and critical community psychology educators in universities from the UK and Ecuador. Based on an international participatory roundtable on decolonisation and a pedagogical exchange between their students, the authors discuss the limitations and possibilities of engaging in a 'new praxis' that is both decolonial and liberatory.

A review

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a frequent dangerous complication occurring during hospital treatment with total annual incidence of 70-200 per 100,000 citizens. Venous thromboembolism includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). Pulmonary embolism is responsible for about 10% of hospitalization-related deaths and is the most common avoidable reason for deaths in hospitals. Psychiatric inpatients are particularly vulnerable to an increased risk of VTE due to their limited mobility, the use of restraints, catatonia, communication difficulties, and the use of antipsychotics. Patients with chronic psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia and recurrent affective disorders have significantly higher somatic comorbidity. This population of patients requires specific approach to VTE prophylaxis during hospitalization. This article offers an insight into issues related to thromboembolism, and presents validated diagnostic tools and VTE prophylaxis strategies. The paper includes the review of available research on VTE in patients hospitalized for psychiatric reasons. Considering the scarcity of specific studies in this population we highlight the necessity to follow the available general medical guidelines for psychiatric inpatients.

The depth of fields: Managing focus in the epistemic subcultures of mind and brain science

The 'psy' sciences emerged from the tangled roots of philosophy, physiology, biology and medicine, and these origins have produced heterogeneous fields. Scientists in these areas work in a complex, overlapping ecology of fields that results in the constant co-presence of dissonant theories, methods and research objects. This raises questions regarding how conceptual clarity is maintained. Using the optical metaphor 'depth of field', I show how researchers in all fields marginalize potential threats to routine scientific work by framing them as either too broad and imprecise or too narrow and technical. The appearance of this defocusing and devaluing across sites suggests a general aspect of scientific cognition, rather than a by-product of any specific scientific dispute.

Consuming an edge: ADHD, stimulant use, and psy culture at the corporate university

We examine "psy" on the college campus. Psy refers to ways of knowing and acting on ourselves that shape everyday life psychologically. We suggest that there is an "elective affinity" between psy and the neoliberal management strategies that now dominate the "corporate university." We describe ways that psy organizes college life by drawing on the history of college health services; interviews about mental health and services at a university in Canada; and historical, social, and media accounts of student mental health and pharmaceutical drug use-both prescribed and not-on campus in the US and Canada. By the 1990s, for the first time, many students were arriving at college as already experienced consumers of psy with diagnoses and prescriptions. We approach this and the increased use of medication as an aspect of the psy-campus. We focus on stimulants, using ADHD to illustrate the blurring line between treatment and enhancement. Students who use stimulants-with or without prescription-do so in the same way: instrumentally in relation to academic demands. The blurred line between academic stress and psychiatric distress is further illustrated by "clinic notes," an institutionalized practice that enables all students to act on academic pressure as a matter of mental health. We describe the links between psy and institutional branding and marketing to illustrate the role of mental health and wellness services in the corporate university.