Distant agricultural landscapes

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11625-014-0278-0This paper examines the relationship between the development of the dominant industrial food system and its associated global economic drivers and the environmental sustainability of agricultural landscapes. It makes the case that the growth of the global industrial food system has encouraged increasingly complex forms of “distance” that separate food both geographically and mentally from the landscapes on which it was produced. This separation between food and its originating landscape poses challenges for the ability of more localized agricultural sustainability initiatives to address some of the broader problems in the global food system. In particular, distance enables certain powerful actors to externalize ecological and social costs, which in turn makes it difficult to link specific global actors to particular biophysical and social impacts felt on local agricultural landscapes. Feedback mechanisms that normally would provide pressure for improved agricultural sustainability are weak because there is a lack of clarity regarding responsibility for outcomes. The paper provides a brief illustration of these dynamics with a closer look at increased financialization in the food system. It shows that new forms of distancing are encouraged by the growing significance of financial markets in global agrifood value chains. This dynamic has a substantial impact on food system outcomes and ultimately complicates efforts to scale up small-scale local agricultural models that are more sustainable.The Trudeau Foundation || Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canad

The Discovery of Two New Satellites of Pluto

Pluto's first known moon, Charon, was discovered in 1978 (Christy 1978) and has a diameter about half that of Pluto (Buie 1992,Young 1994, Sicardy 2005), which makes it larger relative to its primary than any other moon in the Solar System. Previous searches for other satellites around Pluto have been unsuccessful (Stern 1991, Stern 1994, Stern 2003), but they were not sensitive to objects <=150 km in diameter and there are no fundamental reasons why Pluto should not have more satellites (Stern 1994). Here we report the discovery of two additional moons around Pluto, provisionally designated S/2005 P1 (hereafter P1) and S/2005 P2 (hereafter P2), which makes Pluto the first Kuiper belt object (KBO) known to have multiple satellites. These new satellites are much smaller than Charon (diameter~1200 km), with P1 ranging in diameter from 60-165 km depending on the surface reflectivity, and P2 about 20% smaller than P1. Although definitive orbits cannot be derived, both new satellites appear to be moving in circular orbits in the same orbital plane as Charon, with orbital periods of ~38 days (P1) and ~25 days (P2). The implications of the discovery of P1 and P2 for the origin and evolution of the Pluto system, and for the satellite formation process in the Kuiper belt, are discussed in a companion paper (Stern 2006).Comment: Preprint of a paper accepted for publication in the journal Natur

α-cell glucokinase suppresses glucose-regulated glucagon secretion

Glucagon secretion by pancreatic α-cells is triggered by hypoglycemia and suppressed by high glucose levels; impaired suppression of glucagon secretion is a hallmark of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Here, we show that α-cell glucokinase (Gck) plays a role in the control of glucagon secretion. Using mice with α-cell-specific inactivation of Gck (αGckKO mice), we find that glucokinase is required for the glucose-dependent increase in intracellular ATP/ADP ratio and the closure of K javax.xml.bind.JAXBElement@dee6e8 channels in α-cells and the suppression of glucagon secretion at euglycemic and hyperglycemic levels. αGckKO mice display hyperglucagonemia in the fed state, which is associated with increased hepatic gluconeogenic gene expression and hepatic glucose output capacity. In adult mice, fed hyperglucagonemia is further increased and glucose intolerance develops. Thus, glucokinase governs an α-cell metabolic pathway that suppresses secretion at or above normoglycemic levels; abnormal suppression of glucagon secretion deregulates hepatic glucose metabolism and, over time, induces a pre-diabetic phenotype

Involvement of the Intrinsic/Default System in Movement-Related Self Recognition

The question of how people recognize themselves and separate themselves from the environment and others has long intrigued philosophers and scientists. Recent findings have linked regions of the ‘default brain’ or ‘intrinsic system’ to self-related processing. We used a paradigm in which subjects had to rely on subtle sensory-motor synchronization differences to determine whether a viewed movement belonged to them or to another person, while stimuli and task demands associated with the “responded self” and “responded other” conditions were precisely matched. Self recognition was associated with enhanced brain activity in several ROIs of the intrinsic system, whereas no differences emerged within the extrinsic system. This self-related effect was found even in cases where the sensory-motor aspects were precisely matched. Control conditions ruled out task difficulty as the source of the differential self-related effects. The findings shed light on the neural systems underlying bodily self recognition

Durable response with single-agent acalabrutinib in patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma

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The 2016 Feb 19 outburst of comet 67P/CG: an ESA Rosetta multi-instrument study

On 2016 Feb 19, nine Rosetta instruments serendipitously observed an outburst of gas and dust from the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Among these instruments were cameras and spectrometers ranging from UV over visible to microwave wavelengths, in situ gas, dust and plasma instruments, and one dust collector. At 09:40 a dust cloud developed at the edge of an image in the shadowed region of the nucleus. Over the next two hours the instruments recorded a signature of the outburst that significantly exceeded the background. The enhancement ranged from 50 per cent of the neutral gas density at Rosetta to factors >100 of the brightness of the coma near the nucleus. Dust related phenomena (dust counts or brightness due to illuminated dust) showed the strongest enhancements (factors >10). However, even the electron density at Rosetta increased by a factor 3 and consequently the spacecraft potential changed from ∼−16 V to −20 V during the outburst. A clear sequence of events was observed at the distance of Rosetta (34 km from the nucleus): within 15 min the Star Tracker camera detected fast particles (∼25 m s−1) while 100 μm radius particles were detected by the GIADA dust instrument ∼1 h later at a speed of 6 m s−1. The slowest were individual mm to cm sized grains observed by the OSIRIS cameras. Although the outburst originated just outside the FOV of the instruments, the source region and the magnitude of the outburst could be determined

Complicações não clínicas da ventilação mecânica: ênfase no cuidado de enfermagem neonatal Complicaciones no clínicas de la ventilación mecánica: énfasis en el cuidado de enfermería neonatal Non-clinical complications of mechanical ventilation in newborns: nursing care

OBJETIVO: O estudo visou analisar as complicações não clínicas ocorridas na assistência ao recém-nascido em uso de ventilação mecânica. MÉTODOS: Estudo exploratório-descritivo, realizado em uma instituição pública no município de Fortaleza-CE, com RNs em ventilação mecânica que permaneceram por no mínimo 12 horas, no período de abril a junho de 2004. Os dados foram coletados por meio de um formulário e analisados pelo programa estatístico SPSS 1-0. RESULTADOS: Os resultados demonstraram que a obstrução do tubo por rolha ocorreu em 14,3%, seguido de 23,8% de sangramento por trauma, extubações acidentais 40,5%, lesões dérmicas em dois momentos 7,1%. CONCLUSÃO: as complicações relacionadas à assistência ventilatória representam um desafio para a equipe multiprofissional que presta cuidados ao RN na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva Neonatal.<br>OBJETIVO: El estudio tiene por objetivo analizar las complicaciones no clínicas ocurridas en la asistencia al recém-nascido que recibe ventilación mecánica. MÉTODOS: Estudio exploratorio-descriptivo, realizado en una institución pública en el Municipio de Fortaleza-CE, con RN con ventilación mecánica que permanecieron mínimo 12 horas, en el período de abril a junio del 2004. Los datos fueron recolectados por medio de un formulario y analizados por el programa estadístico SPSS 1-0. RESULTADOS: los resultados demuestran que la obstrucción del tubo por un tapón ocurrió 14,3%, seguido de 23,8% de sangrado por trauma, extubaciones accidentales 40,5%, lesiones dérmicas en dos momentos 7,1%. CONCLUSIÓN: las complicaciones relacionadas a la asistencia ventilatoria representan un reto para el equipo multiprofesional que presta cuidados al RN en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos Neonatal.<br>OBJECTIVE: To identify non-clinical complications of the newborn in mechanical ventilation. METHODS: A sample of newborns from a public institution in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, who remained in mechanical ventilator for at least 12 hours, participated in this exploratory descriptive study. Data were collect from April to June 2004 using a specific data collection form designed for this study. RESULTS: Non-clinical complications of the newborn in mechanical ventilation vary: 14.3% had obstruction of the endotracheal tube by cork, 23.8% had bleeding without trauma, 40.5% had accidental extubation, and 7.1% has skin lesions. CONCLUSION: Non-clinical complications related to newborn mechanical ventilation present a challenge to health care professionals in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit