Constructing legitimacy?

How are agroecological transitions and rural development alternatives experienced by farmers and rural activists? To explore this broad issue, Claire Lagier examines how agroecology’s legitimacy is constructed and contested within the base membership and transnational networks of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST). The MST’s politics of land redistribution—as well as campaigning for sustainable rural livelihoods and education—have attracted significant attention worldwide, as have the food sovereignty alliance La Via Campesina’s agroecological training centres. However, few ethnographic studies have focused on the lived experiences of several generations of activists as they struggle to generate ecological transitions in the food system. Addressing this gap, Lagier’s study draws on intensive fieldwork carried out in Brazil in 2017–2018 alongside farmers living in a settlement affiliated with the MST, as well as young Latin American food sovereignty activists taking part in agroecological education. Claire Lagier defended her PhD thesis in Environmental Humanities at LMU Munich's Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in June 2019. Her doctoral work was funded by ENHANCE Marie-Curie ITN (2015-2018). She is currently based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp

Innovative Research for Organic 3.0 - Proceedings of the Scientific Track

The future challenges in food production and consumption appear clear: - Feed 9 to 11 billion people in the next 30 to 80 years with enough, affordable and healthy food. - Protect the environment (e.g. soils, water, air, biodiversity and landscapes) whilst increasingly under pressure to achieve greater levels of intensification. - Mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change in all farming systems and value chains. - Incorporate novel ethics, food habits, demographics and lifestyles into the food chains. - Produce food on limited farmland and fossil (non-renewable) resources efficiently and profitably. Several findings from scientific research and practical applications suggest that organic food and farming systems can help in tackling these future challenges.1The 'low external input' approach, risk minimizing strategies and ethically accepted production practices of organic food and farming systemscan help to produce more affordable food for an increasing number of people while minimizing environmental impacts. However, resource efficiency, low-meat diets and reducing food waste are also essential factors that have to be considered. From a global perspective, organic food and farming systems is still a niche sector, as less than 1% of global farmland is managed organically and only a small proportion of the global population is consuming organic food in significant amounts. Production yields are relatively low, and the goals of organic food and farming systems, described in the principles and standards, are not achieved on every farm. This needs further development based on scientific evidence and good management practices. A lot has been done already to develop organic food and farming systems. Nevertheless, to assure, that organic food and farming systems becomes a significant part of the solutions for the future challenges in the food and farming sector, there is still much to do. The Scientific Track at the Organic World Congress 2017 in Delhi, India, will contribute to the global discussion on Organic 3.0, and taking the opportunity to answers some of the challenges in the context of the Indian subcontinent in particular. After a double-blind review, done by 120 reviewers from various disciplines from many experienced research institutions throughout the world, about 183papers from 50 countries have been accepted. All the papers in these proceedings can be also foundon the database "Organic Eprints" (www.orgprints.org). The Scientific Board of the Organic World Congress 2017 Delhi, November 201

GVSU Press Releases, 1978

A compilation of press releases for the year 1978 submitted by University Communications (formerly News & Information Services) to news agencies concerning the people, places, and events related to Grand Valley State University

Smoking and Second Hand Smoking in Adolescents with Chronic Kidney Disease: A Report from the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKiD) Cohort Study

The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of smoking and second hand smoking [SHS] in adolescents with CKD and their relationship to baseline parameters at enrollment in the CKiD, observational cohort study of 600 children (aged 1-16 yrs) with Schwartz estimated GFR of 30-90 ml/min/1.73m2. 239 adolescents had self-report survey data on smoking and SHS exposure: 21 [9%] subjects had “ever” smoked a cigarette. Among them, 4 were current and 17 were former smokers. Hypertension was more prevalent in those that had “ever” smoked a cigarette (42%) compared to non-smokers (9%), p\u3c0.01. Among 218 non-smokers, 130 (59%) were male, 142 (65%) were Caucasian; 60 (28%) reported SHS exposure compared to 158 (72%) with no exposure. Non-smoker adolescents with SHS exposure were compared to those without SHS exposure. There was no racial, age, or gender differences between both groups. Baseline creatinine, diastolic hypertension, C reactive protein, lipid profile, GFR and hemoglobin were not statistically different. Significantly higher protein to creatinine ratio (0.90 vs. 0.53, p\u3c0.01) was observed in those exposed to SHS compared to those not exposed. Exposed adolescents were heavier than non-exposed adolescents (85th percentile vs. 55th percentile for BMI, p\u3c 0.01). Uncontrolled casual systolic hypertension was twice as prevalent among those exposed to SHS (16%) compared to those not exposed to SHS (7%), though the difference was not statistically significant (p= 0.07). Adjusted multivariate regression analysis [OR (95% CI)] showed that increased protein to creatinine ratio [1.34 (1.03, 1.75)] and higher BMI [1.14 (1.02, 1.29)] were independently associated with exposure to SHS among non-smoker adolescents. These results reveal that among adolescents with CKD, cigarette use is low and SHS is highly prevalent. The association of smoking with hypertension and SHS with increased proteinuria suggests a possible role of these factors in CKD progression and cardiovascular outcomes

Viral infections in 47 CVID patients in allergy and immunology department of Rasool E Akram hospital in Tehran

Background: CVID is a heterogeneous primary immune deficiency with infectious, autoimmune and autoinflamatory features. It is most common symptomatic PID in Iran, with prevalence of 1 in 25000 to 50000 people. CVID has been divided into some phenotypes to produce more homogenized subpopulations. CVID is not a pure Ab deficiency .and because of both abnormalities in Tcell and innate immunity in combination with B cell dysfunction these patients are predisposed to viral and opportunistic infections. Method: prevalence of viral infections is reported in 47 CVID patients registered in Rasool E Akram hospital in Tehran. Patients have been diagnosed as CVID with the PAGID-ESID diagnostic criteria in our department or referred from other clinics for follow up and treatment. Diagnosis of viral germs has been made by clinical signs, pathological significances and in some cases by PCR. Cases: 9 patients (19%) had problems with viral infections. Infections occurred befor diagnosis of CVID in some cases or after that. Four patients (8.5 %) had problems with wart. Sever mucocutaneus HSV infection has occurred in 3 (6 %), recurrent zona in one (2 %) and CMV infection as colitis or pneumonitis in 3(6 %) patients. Sever progressive lethal CNS infection with JC virus occurred in one patient. Conclusion: evidences show that CVID is not a pure B cell defect, and we should be aware of opportunistic and viral infections that in some cases may be fatal