Atelier Nacional de Validação da Estratégia Nacional e Programa de Segurança Alimentar Durável numa Perspectiva de Luta contra a Pobreza

Decorreu nos dias 17 e 18 de Setembro na sala de Conferências do Ministério das Finanças e do Plano o Seminário nacional de validação da Estratégia e Programa de Segurança Alimentar numa perspectiva de luta contra a pobreza. Este evento situa-se na linha dos compromissos assumidos na Declaração dos Chefes de Estado do CILSS reunidos em Bamako em Novembro de 2000 - Quadro Estratégico Regional de Segurança alimentar numa perspectiva de luta contra a pobreza - e insere-se no quadro da preparação do Plano Nacional de Desenvolvimento, visando definir uma estratégia e plano de acção de segurança alimentar a médio e longo prazo, tendo como linha orientadora um conjunto de programas que tem por meta o alcance de uma segurança alimentar durável, numa perspectiva de luta contra a pobreza . O Atelier contou com a presença de representantes do sector privado, do poder local, das ONG´s, de Associações e outras organizações da sociedade civil, de sectores como a saúde, a educação, a solidariedade social e dos parceiros de desenvolvimento, acolhendo um total de .. participantes. (ver lista dos participantes) Abertura do Seminário No seu discurso de abertura ( ver intervenção em anexo), a Senhora Ministra da Agricultura e Pescas destacou os eventos recentes como a Cimeira sobre a Alimentação (Roma +5) e sobre o Desenvolvimento Sustentável (Rio +10) bem como o amplo consenso e compromisso assumido em Bamako em Novembro 2000 pelos países do CILSS. Defendeu que, com a persistência do flagelo e da fome e da malnutrição, a segurança alimentar é o desafio da era da globalização e sublinhou a horizontalidade do tema. Referiu, no caso de Cabo Verde, o impacto da seca e da desertficação sobre a produção, o emprego e os rendimentos com a degradação ambiental e o aumento das bolsas de pobreza, e, neste quadro, o papel da ajuda alimentar para debelar a insegurança alimentar. Põs em relevo igualmente a sua complexidade, envolvendo não só a oferta e o acesso aos bens alimentares, mais também aspectos como os rendimentos, a educação e informação, a saúde e nutrição, a água potável e saneamento, a participação, etc.. Enfatizou que a alimentação e a segurança alimentar é um direito fundamental do homem. No seu entender, o desenvolvimento do sector agrícola é crucial e a agricultura deve posicionar-se como solução, alterando os processos na cultura da terra e na exploração e gestão de recursos, sendo, ao mesmo tempo, importante a mudança de mentalidades e a mobilização de vontades para trilhar o caminho da redução da insegurança alimentar e romper o ciclo da pobreza. Reforçar a solidariedade entre os sectores com vista ao desenvolvimento das comunidades rurais e priorizar a extensão e animação rural bem como a investigação, ampliadas pela assistência técnica, formação e o crédito deve ser um eixo da intervenção

Highre-solution linkage map and chromosome-scale genome assembly for cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) from 10 populations

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a major staple crop in Africa, Asia, and South America, and its starchy roots provide nourishment for 800 million people worldwide. Although native to South America, cassava was brought to Africa 400–500 years ago and is now widely cultivated across sub-Saharan Africa, but it is subject to biotic and abiotic stresses. To assist in the rapid identification of markers for pathogen resistance and crop traits, and to accelerate breeding programs, we generated a framework map for M. esculenta Crantz from reduced representation sequencing [genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS)]. The composite 2412-cM map integrates 10 biparental maps (comprising 3480 meioses) and organizes 22,403 genetic markers on 18 chromosomes, in agreement with the observed karyotype. We used the map to anchor 71.9% of the draft genome assembly and 90.7% of the predicted protein-coding genes. The chromosome-anchored genome sequence will be useful for breeding improvement by assisting in the rapid identification of markers linked to important traits, and in providing a framework for genomic selectionenhanced breeding of this important crop

Editors Note

The Society for Comparative Cultural Inquiry at UCL (SCCI) is delighted to introduce the fourth issue of our postgraduate journal, Tropos. The papers included were all presented at the 2016 Conference, titled ‘Belonging and Transgression’. The papers addressed a wide variety of disciplinary interests in connection with the title theme, intended to allow a point of convergence for scholars from a number of eclectic intellectual backgrounds. The submissions each explored how notions of Belonging and Transgression could be understood and interpreted across a number of cultural, linguistic, and theoretical contexts. This edition of Tropos presents an exclusive selection of the papers presented at the conference, which in 2016 enjoyed its fourth year running. The conference was held at University College London on 23rd-24th June 2016 and was organised by members of the Society from both the School of European Language, Culture, and Societies (SELCS) and the Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry (CMII). It featured numerous postgraduate speakers from across the UK and Europe as well as keynote addresses from Professor Mairéad Hanrahan (Chair of French, UCL) and Professor John Sutherland (Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature, UCL) The research presented at the conference drew on a wide variety of disciplines, speaking to a range of different subjects as diverse as writings on the politics of AIDS/HIV in France, the 16th century legal discussions on the rights of free-movement of peoples, and mid-twentieth century Hungarian theatre. The conference stimulated lively discussions provoked by the theme and the different methods of addressing it throughout the papers. These conversations continued long after the formal proceedings concluded. We are delighted to share a selection of the papers from this conference with you in these pages, and we hope that a similarly lasting discussion will occur between you, the reader, and the articles in this third edition of Tropos. The conference series will continue in 2017 and organised by the Graduate Society for Comparative Cultural Inquiry

Putting fear in its place: remapping of hippocampal place cells during fear conditioning

We recorded hippocampal place cells in two spatial environments: a training environment in which rats underwent fear conditioning and a neutral control environment. Fear conditioning caused many place cells to alter ( or remap) their preferred firing locations in the training environment, whereas most cells remained stable in the control environment. This finding indicates that aversive reinforcement can induce place cell remapping even when the environment itself remains unchanged. Furthermore, contextual fear conditioning caused significantly more remapping of place cells than auditory fear conditioning, suggesting that place cell remapping was related to the rat's learned fear of the environment. These results suggest that one possible function of place cell remapping may be to generate new spatial representations of a single environment, which could help the animal to discriminate among different motivational contexts within that environment

Far-infrared all sky diffuse mapping with AKARI

We discuss the capability of AKARI in recovering diffuse far-infrared emission, and examine the achieved reliability. Critical issues in making images of diffuse emission are the transient response and long-term stability of the far-infrared detectors. Quantitative evaluation of these characteristics are the key to achieving sensitivity comparable to or better than that for point sources (< 20 -- 95 MJy sr-1). We describe current activity and progress toward the production of high quality images of the diffuse far-infrared emission using the AKARI all-sky survey data.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the Conference "AKARI, a light to illuminate the misty Universe", Fukutake Hall, The University of Tokyo, Japan, 16-19 February 200

The Acute Effects of a Dopamine D3 Receptor Preferring Agonist on Motivation for Cigarettes in Dependent and Occasional Cigarette Smokers

Background: Dopaminergic functioning is thought to play critical roles in both motivation and addiction. There is preliminary evidence that dopamine agonists reduce the motivation for cigarettes in smokers. However, the effects of pramipexole, a dopamine D3 receptor preferring agonist, have not been investigated. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of an acute dose of pramipexole on the motivation to earn cigarettes and nondrug rewards. Methods: Twenty dependent and 20 occasional smokers received 0.5 mg pramipexole using a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design. Motivation for cigarettes and consummatory nondrug rewards was measured using the DReaM-Choice task, in which participants earned, and later "consumed," cigarettes, music, and chocolate. Demand for cigarettes was measured using the Cigarette Purchase Task (CPT). Self-reported craving, withdrawal, and drug effects were also recorded. Results: Dependent smokers chose (p < .001) and button-pressed for (p < .001) cigarettes more, and chose chocolate less (p < .001), than occasional smokers. Pramipexole did not affect the number of choices for or amount of button-pressing for any reward including cigarettes, which was supported by a Bayesian analysis. The dependent smokers had greater demand for cigarettes than occasional smokers across all CPT outcomes (ps < .021), apart from elasticity. Pramipexole did not affect demand for cigarettes, and this was supported by Bayesian analyses. Pramipexole produced greater subjective "feel drug" and "dislike drug" effects than placebo. Conclusions: Dependent and occasional cigarette smokers differed in their motivation for cigarettes but not for the nondrug rewards. Pramipexole did not acutely alter motivation for cigarettes. These findings question the role of dopamine D3 receptors in cigarette-seeking behavior in dependent and occasional smokers. Implications: This study adds to the growing literature about cigarette versus nondrug reward processing in nicotine dependence and the role of dopamine in cigarette-seeking behavior. Our results suggest nicotine dependence is associated with a hypersensitivity to cigarette rewards but not a hyposensitivity to nondrug rewards. Furthermore, our results question the importance of dopamine D3 receptors in motivational processing of cigarettes in occasional and dependent smokers

Influence of supramolecular forces on the linear viscoelasticity of gluten

Stress relaxation behavior of hydrated gluten networks was investigated by means of rheometry combined with μ-computed tomography (μ-CT) imaging. Stress relaxation behavior was followed over a wide temperature range (0–70 °C). Modulation of intermolecular bonds was achieved with urea or ascorbic acid in an effort to elucidate the presiding intermolecular interactions over gluten network relaxation. Master curves of viscoelasticity were constructed, and relaxation spectra were computed revealing three relaxation regimes for all samples. Relaxation commences with a well-defined short-time regime where Rouse-like modes dominate, followed by a power law region displaying continuous relaxation concluding in a terminal zone. In the latter zone, poroelastic relaxation due to water migration in the nanoporous structure of the network also contributes to the stress relief in the material. Hydrogen bonding between adjacent protein chains was identified as the determinant force that influences the relaxation of the networks. Changes in intermolecular interactions also resulted in changes in microstructure of the material that was also linked to the relaxation behavior of the networks