In this article, the author develops an Islamic normative legal theoretical framework by using three key Islamic methodological approaches—(1) juridical theory of law (uṣūl), (2) legal maxims (qawāʿid), and (3) purposive-based theory (maqāṣid)—in light of Ronald Dworkin’s notions of rules, principles, and policies, respectively. While uṣūl is used to develop rules, qawāʿid and maqāṣid provide the normative values that govern rulemaking. In addition to presenting a coherent model of Islamic normative legal theory, the author examines legitimacy issues of Islamic law that relate to links of rules to sharīʿa revealed texts and applies the Islamic normative legal theoretical framework to contemporary rulings on the environment, organ transplants, and Islamic finance. The case studies show that using the integrated normative framework would yield more ethical rulings than those that focus on juridical methods (uṣūl) only. The author argues that while the extent of legal legitimacy can vary across different rulings, the application of the Islamic normative legal framework ensures normative legitimacy in all cases, ensuring the moral character of Islamic law.

This paper provides an overview of key concepts in evolutionary psychiatry, summarising major evolutionary explanations for mental illness and highlighting the potential of these perspectives to enhance assessment, diagnosis, explanation to the patient, treatment and prevention strategies. Expanding beyond conventional evolutionary approaches, we explore environmental influences on mental health and illness, emphasising the significant areas of convergence between evolutionary and environmental viewpoints. We then propose an integrated framework that combines insights from both perspectives, offering general principles for improving mental health outcomes at both individual and population levels. The discussion includes implications for general practice, public health and broader societal considerations, with particular reference to concepts such as biophilia and the emerging role of ‘green care’ in psychiatric practice.

The Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023 (NNR2023) serve as the scientific foundation for national dietary guidelines and nutrient recommendations across the Nordic and Baltic countries. We reviewed how NNR2023 was adapted into national food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) in the Nordic countries and Estonia, focusing specifically on sustainability considerations and policy implications. National FBDG integrated both health and environmental aspects in all countries, except Norway, which addressed environmental aspects only in a separate report. Health impacts served as the primary principle in all countries. Additionally, national policy perspectives, such as domestic food security, were addressed in some countries, while the integration of social and economic sustainability remained very limited. In adopting NNR2023, all countries modelled how implementation would affect nutrient adequacy or health within their food environments, making minor adjustments based on these findings. Guidelines for animal source food groups showed the most variation between countries; Estonia and Denmark established the strictest recommended limits for red meat and total meat, respectively, while Norway was most liberal regarding milk products. Stakeholders participated in the consultation process. The agricultural sector and meat industry primarily maintained pro-meat discourse, which was particularly intense in Norway and Sweden. Transition towards healthy and sustainable diets demands multiple policy instruments – FBDG being just one – alongside a supportive environment and participation from all food system actors.

Termination of an existing failed corn stand before replanting is essential. Two studies were conducted in Stoneville and Verona, MS, from 2020 to 2021 to evaluate timing of corn or soybean replanting following different herbicide treatments applied to simulated failed stands of corn. Treatments included paraquat alone at 841 g ai ha−1, paraquat at 841 g ha−1 + metribuzin at 211 g ai ha−1, and clethodim at 51 g ai ha−1 + glyphosate at 1,121 g ae ha−1 applied at the V2 growth stage. Replant timings were 1 and 7 d after herbicide treatment (DAT). Pooled across replant timings, paraquat + metribuzin provided the greatest control 3 DAT compared with other treatments in both studies. At 14 and 21 DAT, clethodim + glyphosate controlled more corn than did paraquat + metribuzin and paraquat alone. Control of a simulated failed corn stand with paraquat alone never exceeded 50% at 3 to 21 DAT. Soybean yield in all plots receiving herbicide treatment targeting simulated failed corn stands were similar and ≥2,150 kg ha−1. When applied at the V2 corn growth stage, both clethodim + glyphosate and paraquat + metribuzin controlled a simulated failed stand of corn. This study demonstrated the importance of terminating failed stands of corn before replanting because of dramatic reductions in yield in the plots not treated with herbicide.

The Tohu Manawa Ora | Healthy Heart Award programme helps early learning services across Aotearoa create an environment that promotes nutritional health and physical activity. It achieves a sustainable change to the environment by using a ‘whole-service’ approach, through governance and management, learning and teaching, collaboration and professional development. The programme aims to foster happy tamariki with awareness of how to have hearts fit for life, ensuring healthier futures for whānau across Aotearoa New Zealand. To evaluate and understand the impact and social value of the Tohu Manawa Ora | Healthy Heart Award programme on fostering healthy habits and creating supportive environments in early learning settings across Aotearoa New Zealand the Heart Foundation undertook this evaluation with ImpactLab. Two hundred and fifteen early learning services and 33,717 tamariki across Aotearoa New Zealand, who were enrolled in or had achieved a Tohu Manawa Ora | Healthy Heart Award, were used to determine the impact and social value of the programme. This was achieved through using a social value calculation which integrates multiple data sources and analytical methods. Firstly, impact values derived from the programme were combined with evidence from global literature on the effectiveness of similar health promotion programmes. Secondly, the size of the opportunity for participants—early learning services across Aotearoa New Zealand—to achieve more positive health outcomes was assessed. Thirdly, the number of people supported by the programme was considered. Every year, the Tohu Manawa Ora | Healthy Heart Award programme delivers $6,163,581 of measurable good to society in New Zealand. Outcomes for tamariki of improved oral health, physical activity and reduced diabetes and improved physical activity for whānau directly contribute to the social value. Improved health equity, nutrition, increased food exposure and physical activity, promotion of lifelong wellbeing and positive health behaviours, reduced cardiovascular disease and sugar consumption indirectly contributed to the social value. This means that every dollar invested in the Tohu Manawa Ora | Healthy Heart Award programme delivers $4.50 of measurable good to New Zealand. The Tohu Manawa Ora | Healthy Heart Award programme delivers significant measurable social value to Aotearoa New Zealand. Growth, development and continued funding of the programme should continue to further positively impact the future of tamariki and their whānau in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Excavations at Alcatrazes, the seat of Cape Verde’s short-lived second captaincy, have exposed a Portuguese colonial settlement, demonstrating continued occupation after the relocation of its official offices. The results include insights into early Luso-African practices and the presence of West African and local-made pottery, with environmental samples ‘clocking’ colonial introductions.

Epidemiological studies have reported an association between the planetary health diet (PHD), diet-related greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs), and mortality. However, data from individuals from non-Western countries was limited. Therefore, we aimed to examine this association among Japanese individuals using a cross-sectional ecological study of all 47 prefectures in Japan. Prefecture-level data were obtained from government surveys. The dietary amount was estimated based on the weight of food purchased (211 items) from the 2021–2023 Family Income and Expenditure Survey. Adherence to PHD was scored using the EAT-Lancet index (range, 0 [worst] to 42 [best]) and categorised into four groups: ≤ 24 (n = 14, low), 25 (n = 17, medium-low), 26 (n = 10, medium-high), and 27 points (n = 6, high). Diet-related GHGEs were estimated using previously developed GHGE tables for each food item. Mortality data were obtained using the 2022 Vital Statistics. Mortality rate ratio (RR) was calculated using a multivariate Poisson regression model. After adjusting for confounders, compared to the prefecture in the medium-low group of adherence score, those in the low and high groups were associated with a higher mortality RR for all-cause (low group: RR = 1.03 [95% CI (confidence interval) = 1.01–1.05]; high group: RR = 1.03 [95% CI = 1.00–1.07]) and pneumonia. Moreover, although a higher adherence score was inversely associated with GHGE, it was linked to an increased mortality risk from heart disease and stroke. Our findings indicate a reverse J-shaped association between adherence to PHD and mortality.

This article investigates the global history of dryland modernisation through the case study of southern Italy. From the early twentieth century to the fascist years, several intellectuals, scientists, and politicians reinterpreted the apparent and long-standing backwardness of this region as fundamentally due to its hydrology and climate: southern Italy was rediscovered as a dry land, formally part of Italy and civilised Europe and yet environmentally closer to extra-European spaces of empire. The article shows how Italian agrarian scientists mobilised this ‘environmental Otherness’ of the Italian south as the key to developing a ‘dryland’ science alternative to that of ‘humid’ northern Italy and continental Europe. Instead, this ‘dryland’ approach to modernisation grounded southern Italy within a vast transimperial network defined by the co-production and circulation of knowledge and technologies allowing the adaptation of modern and intensive food production to semi-arid regions. As such, the article argues that Italian agrarian scientists redefined the spatial order of the Italian south in a transimperial sense, embracing its environmental Otherness as a vantage point for its rehabilitation within Italy’s nation-building.

This piece explores the parallel development of two fisheries management regimes in mid-twentieth-century Lake Malawi: one imposed by the British colonial government over the lake and the other by Senior Chief Makanjira focused on Mbenji Island. The parallel development of these regimes provides opportunity for close analysis of how fisheries management centred on different knowledge and practices led to distinctive legacies of governance legitimacy and efficacy. Given the increasing recognition that Indigenous knowledge is crucial to the future sustainability of fisheries globally, we contend that it is imperative to recognise the ways in which colonial pasts have embedded knowledge hierarchies and exclusionary decision-making processes within national fisheries governance regimes that continue to obstruct capacities to bring different knowledges, practices, and management approaches together effectively and appropriately.

This article traces the history of the repression of palm wine and alcohol (sodabi) in Dahomey, now Benin, with varying degrees of intensity, from the nineteenth-century kingdom of Abomey to postcolonial Dahomey. In parallel with the repression, this article also looks at the history of palm alcohol production. Dahomeans learned to distil wine from French peasants during the First World War, and were driven into sodabi production by French economic policies during the Great Depression. Using court sources, this article describes the social organisation, gender division, and economic rationale of sodabi production, as well as the occasions on which it was drunk. Ultimately, it argues that the repression of sodabi made it more difficult for peasants to improve their living conditions.