Ecological Shifts Under Climate Change: Understanding Pest Responses and Agricultural Vulnerability

Insect pests indicate serious hazards to agriculture, human health and global food security, which are compounded by climate change and changing pest behaviors. Traditional pest management systems, such as chemical controls and integrated pest management, are under threat due to resistance and environmental concerns. This review explores innovative pest control methods, focusing on Genetic Pest Management (GPM) and the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). GPM technologies, such as CRISPR-based gene editing and gene drives, offer promising solutions by introducing targeted genetic modifications to pest populations. SIT, which involves releasing sterilized insects to reduce pest populations, is enhanced by advances in sexing and genetic techniques. Biological control agents (BCAs), including entomopathogenic bacteria and fungi, provide sustainable alternatives for pest management. The effectiveness of these methods depends on understanding the underlying mechanisms and optimizing application conditions. Regulatory frameworks play a crucial role in the adoption of these technologies, with varying requirements across countries. We believe that ongoing advancements in biological and genetic approaches, when effectively regulated and thoughtfully integrated, will be crucial in shaping the next generation of pest management techniques. This review highlights the importance of sustained research and comprehensive regulation to maximize the benefits and applications of these innovative pest management strategies.

Developing GM insects for sustainable pest control in agriculture and human health

Entomopathogenic Fungi (EPF) biopesticides are more environmentally friendly and are an alternative to toxic synthetic chemicals. Due to EPF's pathogenic nature to various arthropod pests, it is thus considered a primary candidate for an integrated biological approach due to its numerous invaluable effects. However, an urgent need is to develop an environmentally safer, more sustainable, and practical approach to managing insect pests. Incorporating fungal biopesticide in an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach offers an opportunity to reduce the unselective and continuous use of synthetic chemicals to manage insect pests. There are limited reviews on biopesticides in developing countries concerning research questions. The review aimed to provide an understanding of the use of entomopathogenic fungal biopesticides to manage insect pests, majorly aphids in horticultural crops such as French beans.” The study uses an inclusive search approach, identifying 1046 articles and reports from 2010-2022 from relevant sources like Web of Science, dimension, Google Scholar, and Google. Out of these, 85 original papers and grey literature were selected and were related to fungal biopesticide use in Kenya and aimed at improving comprehensive knowledge on the benefits and use of EPF biopesticide against insect pests, their action, and how they kill the target pest. The current review presents information on the use of EPF, Metarhizium anisopliae, and Beauveria bassiana as biopesticides that are dominantly used in Kenya and attributed to their pathogenicity, registry, accessibility, and secondary metabolites produced, thus, increased demand with more than 132,980 hectares in 2019 in Kenya under biopesticides. However, their use in biocontrol processes is still underestimated due to a lack of knowledge. Thus, this study review recommends integrating EPF with other measures for enhanced fungal biopesticide formulation, pathogenicity, and increased shelf-life.

Yes, Irradiated Sterile Male Mosquitoes Can Be Sexually Competitive!

Precision agricultural technologies (PATs) have revolutionized the way farmers grow crops, including potatoes. This review paper presented an overview of the best management practices (BMPs) such as soil preparation, proper irrigation, crop fertilization, pest and disease management, and harvest and storage of potato crop using PATs. The paper evaluated the economic and environmental aspects of the BMPs in five major research engines, such as Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Sciences, and IEEEXplore. The paper discussed the challenges faced by potato farmers in terms of increasing yields, improving quality and reducing production costs. The use of PATs, such as yield monitoring systems, precision planting, variable rate application of inputs, and remote sensing among others, is discussed as a solution to these challenges. The paper summarized the current state of the art in these technologies and provided a comprehensive review of the existing literature. The review highlighted the benefits of using PATs in potato crop management, including increased yields, improved efficiency, and reduced environmental impact. The review paper provided recommendations for gaps and limitations in BMPs using PATs. The paper concluded by providing suggestions for future research in this area, including the need for more interdisciplinary studies and the development of new PATs.

Frontiers in climate change–disease research

The global burden of vector-borne diseases continues to grow year on year. Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes lead to more than 700,000 deaths each year, with malaria alone accounting for almost half a million of the total deaths. Such statistics underline the urgency for alternative complementary control measures. The sterile insect technique (SIT) is one of several genetic control measures routinely used throughout the world to suppress, contain or eradicate various species of agricultural, veterinary or human insect pests. SIT is a technique which has proved successful and sustainable, particularly when deployed as part of an area-wide integrated pest management programme (AW-IPM). A build-up of insecticide resistance coupled with the global spread of species such as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus has reignited interest in developing mosquito SIT as part of an AW-IPM approach. Significant progress has been made in the last decade towards taking mosquito SIT to the operational level, however, distinct gaps still remain in the literature, especially regarding the post-pupal irradiation stages. The aim of this research thesis was to address some of the key issues where information was lacking, specifically the handling, transport and release of sterile male mosquitoes. The impact of immobilisation temperature and duration on male mosquito survivalwas investigated in Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus and Anopheles arabiensis, in order to determine a suitable storage and transportation temperature range when conducting releases of sterile male mosquitoes. The effect of compaction during storage was investigated and a maximum tolerable threshold determined. A standardised method to mark male mosquitoes for a small-scale field release was developed and verified in Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus and Anopheles arabiensis. A novel flight ability device, which aims to assess male mosquito quality was created and validated for Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus and subsequently modified and verified for Anopheles arabiensis.The effect of varying environmental conditions relating to the time of day that sterile male releases could occur was investigated for both male Anopheles arabiensis and Aedes aegypti. Finally, an adult aerial release device was developed in conjunction with the NGO WeRobotics and as part of a United States Agency for International Development grant. The system was successfully field tested in Brazil via a series of mark-release-recapture studies. As mosquito SIT nears the operational phase, it is hoped this research is a starting point when addressing some of the outstanding questions related to the handling, transport and release of sterile male mosquitoes.

This paper provides an overview of the following: the integrated pest management (IPM) system; new developments in IPM in the areas of policy framework, pest diagnostic and monitoring tools, biotechnology and biological pesticides, precision agriculture technology and geographical information systems, biological pest management, farmer empowerment, and information, communication and education; international initiatives in IPM (UN-FAO Plant Protection Service, global IPM facility, USAID IPM Collaboration Research Support Program, CGIAR SP-IPM, IPMEurope/IPMForum, CABI Bioscience, CICP, CPITT at the University of Queensland, national IPM centres and programmes, NSF Center for IPM, and ICIPE and Africa IPM Forum); and goals and objectives of the Global IPM Book.

<i>Chrysanthemum stem necrosis tospovirus</i>

The Okanagan-Kootenay Sterile Insect Release (OKSIR) programme, in southern British Columbia, Canada, has been successfully applying the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) as part of a sustainable area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) programme to control the codling moth Cydia pomonella L. in pome fruits in the region for over 20 years. Chemical, cultural and biological techniques that complement the SIT are also integrated into orchard and regional pest management plans by the programme and/or individual growers. The AW-IPM programme is supported by close monitoring of codling moth populations in orchards and adjacent urban properties; enforcing suppression of codling moth infestations in orchards and urban areas; removing derelict orchards, wild host trees and poorly managed host trees; and increasing public awareness and education. Successful collaboration between the OKSIR programme, the pome fruit industry, area residents and various government organizations has reduced codling moth populations by 94%, relative to pre-programme levels, and codling moth damage to less than 0.2% of fruit, in more than 90% of the orchards in the programme area. Local pesticide sales indicate a 96% reduction in the amount of active ingredient used against the codling moth since 1991. Implementing the SIT through an innovative social approach to local community-centred area-wide pest management has posed many challenges and created many learning opportunities. The codling moth mass-rearing facility in Osoyoos, British Columbia, has the capacity to produce 780 million sterile codling moths annually, but only a portion of that is used seasonally to treat 3400 hectares (ha) of pome fruit made up of small orchards intermixed with residential areas in the Okanagan Valley. As a result of climate change and increasing global trade, destructive insect pests are migrating to new habitats throughout the world. These new threats must be managed in ways that protect both the agrifood industries and the natural environments in which the industries operate. The OKSIR programme is an effective and easily transferred model to meet these challenges, especially as a supplement to other biological control methods. The programme is also a 112compelling model of success that can encourage other regions to use the SIT in their pest management toolbox to combat codling moth infestations across multiple local community jurisdictions using environment-friendly, cost-effective methods based on proven technology. The OKSIR programme is exploring the sale of surplus sterile moths, egg sheets or possible virus production as an opportunity to offset costs of incorporating additional area-wide approaches to combat other invasive pests.

Anthropogenic climate change and allergen exposure: The role of plant biology

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has a prominent place on the policy agenda. Due to continuing concerns regarding unsustainable trends in pest management, promoting the adoption of IPM has been a priority in developed and developing countries. The history of IPM, however, can be traced back to the late 1800s when ecology was identified as the foundation for scientific plant protection. The priorities in IPM shifted from calendar-based use of insecticides to need base, and thereafter, reduce use of insecticides with safety concerns to environment and human health. The development, validation, and dissemination of site-specific IPM and adoption by farmers are key elements for the success of IPM programs. The IPM means do right thing based on a value-based decision system and use of multiple tactics. Because, information delivery is a key part of IPM, the spread of the internet rapidly has enhanced knowledge transfer and access to options. The knowledge acquisition tools are essential for the successful implementation of IPM. Knowledge and information transfer are key to correct pest management. IPM emphasizes correct decisions based on available information on pest management. Internet-based interactive decision support can play a significant role in developing countries. With new innovations coming fast and increasing awareness of the internet, more farmers are using IPM informatics and decision support systems. Environmental risk in IPM is an important issue. Pesticides will continue to dominate IPM in developing and under-developed countries as the target is to produce more for food security. Environmental quality in pest management will continue the focus on alternatives to pesticides and environmentally-safe tactics. Recent developments have the potential to contribute to greater significance of IPM for sustainable development in agriculture. New technological innovations and new modes of delivery have given a new direction to IPM. Biotechnology, including genetic engineering, offers new tools for reducing dependency on chemical pesticides. New products for biological control are becoming more widely applied, and the agrochemical industry is developing more specific and target products. Participatory approaches for farmer training and awareness rising are increasingly employed to ensure sustainability of pest management practices. Requirements of the food industry regarding pesticide residues have become a major force that encourage adoption of IPM practices, and the rising public demand for food safety and quality is creating niche and market nobreak opportunities for certified products, such as organic foods. Pest and pesticide management problems affect most countries and many externalities are global in scope. IPM is gaining recognition as a global policy issue and there is increased involvement of the relevant stakeholders in the IPM policy debate at both the national and international levels. To develop IPM programs for the 21st century, directional research and extension seems to be needed, as well as the development of new nobreak technology.

Over the last decade, researchers have become increasingly interested in students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and how these beliefs develop. Although initial psychological accounts portrayed epistemic development as a domain-independent process of cognitive maturation, recent studies have found trajectories of epistemic development to vary considerably across contexts. However, few studies have focused on cultural context. This article examines the role community values and practices play in fostering particular epistemological orientations by comparing the epistemological beliefs of 5th, 8th, and 12th graders (N = 200) from General and Religious schools in Israel regarding 2 controversies: belief in God and punishment of children. In both controversies, older participants were less likely than younger participants to consider the controversy rationally decidable. However, this shift emerged earlier in the God controversy than in the punishment controversy. In the God controversy, General pupils were less likely than Religious pupils to consider the question rationally decidable or their own beliefs infallible. But no such school differences were observed in the punishment controversy. Qualitative and quantitative analyses linked these differences to divergent discourse practices at General and Religious schools, suggesting that the relations between learning and epistemic development are more intricate than has been assumed hitherto. Epistemology is an area of philosophy concerned with questions of what knowledge is and how it is justified. Although few people give these questions such detailed and sustained attention as professional philosophers, anyone attempting to acquire, produce, or evaluate knowledge relies, at least implicitly, on some set of epistemological beliefs. Such beliefs are of obvious interest to educators. To understand how students acquire, evaluate, and justify knowledge, we need to understand what they consider knowledge to be. And to help students become discerning consumers and responsible producers of knowledge, we need to understand how people learn to exercise reflective judgment in the face of competing claims. The psychological study of epistemic development is undergoing something of a renaissance. Interest in this area can be traced back to Piaget (1970) Piaget, J. 1970. Genetic epistemology New York: Columbia University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Dewey (1933) Dewey, J. 1933. How we think Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath and Co. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], and beyond (e.g., Plato's Theaetetus). But only recently have psychologists begun to draw together hitherto disparate strands of empirical inquiry to chart in detail the course of epistemic development from infancy to adulthood (see, e.g., Hallett, Chandler, & Krettenauer, 2002 Hallett, D., Chandler, M. J. and Krettenauer, T. 2002. Disentangling the course of epistemic development: Parsing knowledge by epistemic content. New Ideas in Psychology, 20(2-3): 285–307. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Kuhn, Cheney, & Weinstock, 2000 Kuhn, D. 2000. Metacognitive development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(5): 178–181. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Wainryb, Shaw, Langley, Cottam, & Lewis, 2004 Wainryb, C., Shaw, L. A., Langley, M., Cottam, K. and Lewis, R. 2004. Children's thinking about diversity of belief in the early school years: Judgments of relativism, tolerance, and disagreeing persons. Child Development, 75(3): 687–703. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Initial research in this field was conducted largely within a neo-Piagetian paradigm. Epistemic development was characterized as a progression through discrete stages or levels of epistemological understanding, each following the other in invariant sequence and constituting a comprehensive transformation of the individual's conception of knowledge (see, e.g., Chandler, 1975 Chandler, M. J. 1975. Relativism and the problem of epistemological loneliness. Human Development, 18(3): 171–180. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Kitchener & King, 1981 Kitchener, K. S. and King, P. M. 1981. Reflective judgment: Concepts of justification and their relationship to age and education. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2: 89–116. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Perry, 1970 Perry, W. G. 1970. Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years: A scheme Troy, MO: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. [Google Scholar]). Researchers differed somewhat in their nomenclatures and in their criteria for distinguishing levels of epistemological sophistication, but they concurred broadly in positing at least two major shifts in epistemological understanding (for recent reviews, see Hofer & Pintrich, 1997 Hofer, B. K. and Pintrich, P. R. 1997. The development of epistemological theories: Beliefs about knowledge and knowing and their relation to learning. Review of Educational Research, 67(1): 88–140. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2002 Hammer, D. and Elby, A. 2002. "On the form of a personal epistemology.". In Personal epistemology: The psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing Edited by: Hofer, B. K. and Pintrich, P. R. 169–190. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. [Google Scholar]). Initially, the individual subscribes to an objectivist conception of knowledge, in which every question is believed to have a single, correct answer that is knowable with absolute certainty. Subsequently, in a radical shift, objectivism is abandoned in favor of subjectivism, and the individual equates all knowledge claims with matters of personal taste or preference. Finally, a balance is achieved in which objective and subjective aspects of knowing are coordinated. At this "evaluativist" stage (cf. Kuhn, 1991 Kuhn, D. 1991. The skills of argument Cambridge, , England: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), the individual sees knowledge as something that is constructed tentatively by evaluating the evidence for and against competing beliefs and points of view. There was some debate about the precise relations of these stages to Piaget's stages of intellectual development (see, e.g., Boyes & Chandler, 1992 Boyes, M. C. and Chandler, M. 1992. Cognitive development, epistemic doubt, and identity formation in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 21(3): 277–304. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, they were viewed by most researchers as a kind of "post-formal operations" taking up the formal operational attainments of hypothetical thinking and perspective-taking and applying them wholesale to knowledge claims as such, in a form of meta-metacognition (see, e.g., Kitchener, 1983 Kitchener, K. S. 1983. Cognition, metacognition and epistemic cognition: A three-level model of cognitive processing. Human Development, 26: 222–232. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Kuhn, 2000 Kuhn, D. 2000. Metacognitive development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(5): 178–181. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Moshman, 2003 Moshman, D. 2003. Intellectual freedom for intellectual development. Liberal Education, 89(3): 30–38. [Google Scholar]). Empirical support for this model of epistemic development came from several parallel research programs. Overall, these studies provided substantial evidence of development in the hypothesized direction (Hallett et al., 2002 Hallett, D., Chandler, M. J. and Krettenauer, T. 2002. Disentangling the course of epistemic development: Parsing knowledge by epistemic content. New Ideas in Psychology, 20(2-3): 285–307. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Hofer & Pintrich, 1997 Hofer, B. K. and Pintrich, P. R. 1997. The development of epistemological theories: Beliefs about knowledge and knowing and their relation to learning. Review of Educational Research, 67(1): 88–140. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; King & Kitchener, 1994 King, P. M. and Kitchener, K. S. 1994. Developing reflective judgment San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [Google Scholar]). However, the ages at which the key shifts in epistemological understanding were observed varied enormously from program to program. As Hallett et al. (2002) Hallett, D., Chandler, M. J. and Krettenauer, T. 2002. Disentangling the course of epistemic development: Parsing knowledge by epistemic content. New Ideas in Psychology, 20(2-3): 285–307. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] noted regarding the emergence of subjectivism, "one could read selectively from the literature and, with good reason, conclude that such abilities put in their appearance at either 4 or 6 or 8 or 12 or 16 or 20, or in receipt of a Ph.D." (p. 289). These vast discrepancies have led researchers to reexamine some of the assump-tions underlying their models and measures of epistemic development. In particular, researchers have begun to question the comprehensiveness of shifts in epistemological understanding and to attend more closely to the variety of contexts within which epistemic beliefs are held, employed, and articulated (cf.Elby&Ham-mer, 2001 Elby, A. and Hammer, D. 2001. On the substance of a sophisticated epistemology. Science Education, 85(5): 554–567. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Hammer&Elby, 2002 Hammer, D. and Elby, A. 2002. "On the form of a personal epistemology.". In Personal epistemology: The psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing Edited by: Hofer, B. K. and Pintrich, P. R. 169–190. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. [Google Scholar], 2003 Hammer, D. and Elby, A. 2003. Tapping epistemological resources for learning physics. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 12(1): 53–90. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This attention to context has taken several forms. One line of research has sought to show that epistemic development is a some-what domain-dependent process that occurs with respect to some kinds of knowledge claim before others. For example, it has been proposed that subjectivism emerges in relation to aesthetic claims before it emerges in relation to claims about the physical world (e.g., Hallett et al., 2002 Hallett, D., Chandler, M. J. and Krettenauer, T. 2002. Disentangling the course of epistemic development: Parsing knowledge by epistemic content. New Ideas in Psychology, 20(2-3): 285–307. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Kuhn et al., 2000 Kuhn, D. 2000. Metacognitive development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(5): 178–181. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Wainryb et al., 2004 Wainryb, C., Shaw, L. A., Langley, M., Cottam, K. and Lewis, R. 2004. Children's thinking about diversity of belief in the early school years: Judgments of relativism, tolerance, and disagreeing persons. Child Development, 75(3): 687–703. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Another line of research has sought to show that epistemological beliefs are multi di-mensional rather than unitary. For example, it has been proposed that people's beliefs about the complexity of knowledge develop more or less independently of their beliefs about its certainty (e.g., Schommer, 1990 Schommer, M. 1990. Effects of beliefs about the nature of knowledge on comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(3): 498–504. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1993 Schommer, M. 1993. Comparisons of beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning amongst post-secondary students. Research in Higher Education, 34(3): 355–370. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Although the accumulated empirical evidence is as yet suggestive rather than conclusive (see Elby&Hammer, 2001 Elby, A. and Hammer, D. 2001. On the substance of a sophisticated epistemology. Science Education, 85(5): 554–567. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Hallett et al., 2002 Hallett, D., Chandler, M. J. and Krettenauer, T. 2002. Disentangling the course of epistemic development: Parsing knowledge by epistemic content. New Ideas in Psychology, 20(2-3): 285–307. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], pp. 303–304; Kuhn et al., 2000 Kuhn, D. 2000. Metacognitive development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(5): 178–181. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], pp. 321–322), both research programs hold out the possibility of disentangling the course of epistemic de-velopment by identifying elements of epistemological understanding that emerge at different points in the lifespan(cf.Hallett et al.,2002 Hallett, D., Chandler, M. J. and Krettenauer, T. 2002. Disentangling the course of epistemic development: Parsing knowledge by epistemic content. New Ideas in Psychology, 20(2-3): 285–307. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], p. 290; Wainryb et al. 2004 Wainryb, C., Shaw, L. A., Langley, M., Cottam, K. and Lewis, R. 2004. Children's thinking about diversity of belief in the early school years: Judgments of relativism, tolerance, and disagreeing persons. Child Development, 75(3): 687–703. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, "domains" and "dimensions" are not the only contexts within which epistemic beliefs are situated. Just as people's epistemic beliefs may be affected by the particular content of the knowledge claims being evaluated, so too may they be affected by the particular procedures of knowledge evaluation practiced in, and sanctioned by, the communities in which they participate (cf. Hammer & Elby, 2003 Hammer, D. and Elby, A. 2003. Tapping epistemological resources for learning physics. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 12(1): 53–90. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Few studies have directly examined cross-cultural variation in epistemological beliefs. And those that have done so have tended to focus on comparisons between U.S. and East Asian college students (e.g., Chan & Elliott, 2002 Chan, K. and Elliott, R. G. 2002. Exploratory study of Hong Kong teacher education students' epistemological beliefs: Cultural perspectives and implications on beliefs research. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27(3): 392–414. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2004 Chan, K. and Elliott, R. G. 2004. Epistemological beliefs across cultures: Critique and analysis of beliefs structure studies. Educational Psychology, 24(2): 123–142. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]; Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001 Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I. and Norenzayan, A. 2001. Culture and systems of thought: Holistic versus analytic cognition. Psychological Review, 108(2): 291–310. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Zhang, 1999 Zhang, L. F. 1999. A comparison of U. S. and Chinese university students' cognitive development: The cross-cultural applicability of Perry's theory. Journal of Psychology, 133(4): 425–439. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Nonetheless, the findings of such studies are highly suggestive. Especially striking is Zhang's finding that Chinese students' epistemological beliefs shifted over the college years in exactly the opposite direction to those of their U.S. counterparts. Specifically, rather than moving from objectivist to subjectivist conceptions of knowledge, similar to their peers at U.S. universities, Chinese students appeared to shift from more subjectivist conceptions of knowledge to more objectivist ones. Such findings raise intriguing questions about the relations between culture and epistemic development, and about the relations between learning and epistemic development more generally. For a field of inquiry dominated by educational psychologists, remarkably little is known about these relations. As Hofer and Pintrich(1997) Hofer, B. K. and Pintrich, P. R. 1997. The development of epistemological theories: Beliefs about knowledge and knowing and their relation to learning. Review of Educational Research, 67(1): 88–140. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] noted, "there is little empirical evidence for precisely what fosters epistemological development or how epistemological beliefs are altered" (p. 123). Research has shown that schooling makes a difference(e.g. Bell&Linn, 2002 Bell, P. and Linn, M. C. 2002. "Beliefs about science: How does instruction contribute?". In Personal epistemology: The psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing Edited by: Hofer, B. K. and Pintrich, P. R. 321–346. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. [Google Scholar]; King&Kitchener, 1994 King, P. M. and Kitchener, K. S. 1994. Developing reflective judgment San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [Google Scholar]), but it has yielded little insight into how or why it makes a difference. Moreover, researchers have tended to equivocate between viewing epistemological beliefs as causes and effects of learning—as age-dependent constraints on instruction on one hand andasoutcomesof instructionon the other hand (cf. Kuhn, 1991 Kuhn, D. 1991. The skills of argument Cambridge, , England: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 2003 Kuhn, D. 2003. Understanding and valuing knowing as developmental goals. Liberal Education, 89(3): 16–22. [Google Scholar]; Schommer, 1990 Schommer, M. 1990. Effects of beliefs about the nature of knowledge on comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(3): 498–504. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1993 Schommer, M. 1993. Comparisons of beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning amongst post-secondary students. Research in Higher Education, 34(3): 355–370. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Cross-cultural studies of age trends in epistemological belief are one way to investigate systematically the relations between age, learning, and epistemic development. If the nature and timing of age-related shifts in epistemological belief vary cross-culturally, then this is presumably because participants in different cultures learn, through participation in practices particular to their respective communities, to treat knowledge claims in different ways. To the extent that researchers can pinpoint such practices and measure their impact on individuals' epistemological beliefs, we can begin to characterize more precisely the relations between learning and epistemic development. However, in designing such studies, researchers must take great care to distinguish between reportage and editorial. "Development" is a value-laden term. Theoretical models of psychological development do more than describe a sequence; they attach values to different points along the sequence. Specifically, they define some psychological states or capacities as more mature, adequate, or sophisticated than others. When developmental studies are restricted to homogeneous cultural settings, within which there is little serious disagreement among experts about the relative adequacy of different psychological states or capacities, the risk of bias in diagnosing participants' levels of development is relatively slight. However, as the cultural heterogeneity of the sample increases, so too does the risk that the model on the basis of which participants' development is diagnosed is ethnocentrically biased against a portion of the sample. For example, beliefs that are defined as immature by the developmental model might be considered mature within one of the cultures from which the sample is drawn, or vice versa. These dangers exist to some extent in all cross-cultural studies of psychological development (see Cole & Scribner, 1974 Cole, M. and Scribner, S. 1974. Culture and thought: A psychological introduction New York: Wiley. [Google Scholar]; Greenfield & Bruner, 1966 Greenfield, P. M. and Bruner, J. S. 1966. Culture and cognitive growth. International Journal of Psychology, 1: 89–107. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Shweder, Mahapatra, & Miller, 1990 Shweder, R. A., Mahapatra, M. and Miller, J. G. 1990. "Culture and moral development.". In Cultural psychology: Essays on comparative human development Edited by: Stigler, J. W. 130–204. New York: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). However, in cross-cultural studies of epistemic development the danger is even more clear and present. This is because there are at least four levels at which epistemological judgments can be made, and as one ascends from the first level to the fourth, the value assumptions implicit in these judgments become less visible to the naked eye but never quite disappear. At the first, most basic level, there arejudgments about the epistemic status of par-ticular claims, such as whether a given assertion (e.g., "Eating people is wrong") is known or merely believed (e.g., "John doesn't know that eating people is wrong; he merely believes that eating people is wrong"). At one level of abstraction up from such judgments, there are judgments about the epistemic status of general classes of claim, such as judgments about whether knowledge is possible about, say, matters of aesthetics or morality (e.g., "There are no such things as moral truths or moral knowledge; morality is a question of commitment—not of what is or is not the case"). At yet another level of abstraction up from such judgments, there are further judgments about the criteria by which epistemic states are distinguished one from another, such as judgments about what differentiates knowledge from belief or opin-ion (e.g., "Knowledge is justified true belief;if a belief is true but not justified, or jus-tified but not true, then it isn't known"). And beyond this third level, there is a fourth level of judgments about the relative adequacy of particular criteria for distinguishing between epistemic states, such as judgments about whether the subjectivist equation of knowledge with opinion is less adequate than the evaluativist's insistence that knowledge differs from opinion in being supported by evidence (e.g., "Subjectivism is inferior to evaluativism because it fails to account for our belief that some claims are better supported than others"). According to this analysis, authors of contemporary models of epistemic development are themselves exercising a form of epistemological judgment in articulating their models. Specifically, they are operating at the fourth level (outlined previously), expressing their own beliefs about the relative adequacy of particular epistemological orientations. This is all well and good as long as the beliefs in question are compatible with the epistemological beliefs, values, and practices of the communities to which the model is applied. However, in cross-cultural studies of epistemic development, such compatibility cannot be assumed in advance of the investigation itself. Accordingly, if one wishes to avoid ethnocentrism, one cannot conduct a cross-cultural study of epistemic development without suspending, at least temporarily, one's hierarchical assumptions about the relative adequacy of particular epistemological orientations. This is not to say that researchers are not entitled to opinions of their own about the relative adequacy of particular epistemological beliefs or that all talk of epistemic development is inherently ethnocentric. It is merely to point out that because standards of epistemological maturity may themselves vary across cultures, assumptions about the relative adequacy of particular epistemological beliefs must not be built into the design of cross-cultural studies. This study, therefore, departs from previous studies of epistemic development by dropping the assumption that some epistemological beliefs are inherently more adequate than others. By dropping this assumption, I do not affirm the contrary assumption that all epistemological beliefs are equally adequate. Rather, I adopt a form of methodological agnosticism to reduce the scope for ethnocentric bias in the study'sdesign. In the Discussion section, I return to the question of hierarchy and review the assumptions of contemporary models of epistemic development in light of my findings. This study investigates the relations between age, learning, and epistemic devel-opment by comparing the epistemological beliefs of pupil sat Religious schools and General schools in Israel about two controversies: one religious and the other nonre-ligious. Specifically, this study asks three questions. First, how do beliefs about the nature of religious claims vary with age and school? Second, to what extent are these age and school differences attributable to underlying group differences in religious commitment and general epistemological sophistication? Third, how are variations in epistemological belief across ages, schools, and controversies related to educational practices at Religious and General schools, respectively?

Current innovations and future trends in storage pest management, with a specific focus on the Indian context. The critical role of effective pest management in agriculture and food security is underscored, considering its impact on economic stability and public health. It begins by detailing the challenges faced in storage pest management, including the variety of pests like insects and rodents, and the damage they inflict on stored agricultural products. It critiques the limitations of traditional pest management methods, particularly chemical control, and highlights emerging issues such as climate change effects and pesticide resistance. The core examines the latest innovations in storage pest management. Advanced chemical approaches like novel pesticides and controlled release formulations are discussed, alongside the rise of nanotechnology applications in pest control, including nano-pesticides and smart delivery systems. The emergence of biological control innovations, particularly new biocontrol agents, and genetic control strategies like the sterile insect technique, marks a significant shift towards more sustainable pest management methods. Additionally, It explores developments in physical and mechanical control methods, emphasizing improved storage facilities and environmental control techniques. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approaches are identified as a key future trend, promoting holistic and sustainable strategies, with case studies underscoring their success and practical application. It also addresses the vital role of policy and regulatory developments, considering the impact of global regulations and the importance of international cooperation and standards in shaping pest management practices in India. Ethical and environmental considerations form a crucial part of the discourse, focusing on the ecological impact of pest management and the balance between control measures and conservation efforts. It concludes with an examination of practical applications and case studies, providing insights into real-world challenges and the strategies employed to overcome them. Overall, It offers a thorough analysis of the state-of-the-art in storage pest management, highlighting the intersection of innovation, sustainability, and practicality. It aims to provide valuable guidance for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in the field, contributing to the advancement of more effective, environmentally responsible, and sustainable pest management strategies in India.

Conventional Integrated Pest Management (IPM) systems have concentrated on controlling pests through informed use of cultural and biological control and host plant resistance characteristics to minimise pesticide interventions. The basic foundation of successful IPM systems is a thorough knowledge of the target pest’s life cycle, and its ecological and behavioral interactions with the environment and natural controlling factors in both its indigenous and crop habitats. Through this basic knowledge, a number of new interventions can be added to the IPM arsenal. These include management of the habitat to make the crop less suitable for colonisation by potential pests, and to increase natural enemy foraging and abundance in the crop habitat, increasing the efficacy of conservation, inoculative and augmentative biological control. In addition, more is known about impact of plant and insect pathogens and symbionts on target pest populations by making potential host plants more or less suitable for colonisation, adding a fourth trophic level to agro-ecosystem dynamics. Furthermore, the impact of these on fertility and offspring sex ratios (e.g. Wolbachia isolates in pest and natural enemy populations) makes their exploitation, in combination with interventions such as Sterile Insect Technology (SIT), a real and practical possibility. This chapter evaluates the newer interventions, using examples from the literature and from local research to show the effectiveness of these, and how they can be incorporated into conventional IPM practices, to make them more effective.