«Cuando yo ya no pueda hacerlo, nadie lo haráa»: La conservación de la agrobiodiversidad en tiempos de migración

This research explores the connections between agrobiodiversity conservation and indigenous farmers’ rural-urban migration in the Altiplano Norte of Bolivia. Two trends are identified and analysed: agronomic simplification, as part of a process of deagrarianisation; and agrobiodiversity reinvention, taking shape in a period in which the indigenous roots of Bolivia, native crops and traditional dishes experience a revival in discourse and food practices. Temporary and return migrants are important characters in this process, as innovators and crucial allies for urban-based stakeholders promoting agrobiodiversity conservation

Turning page in relations between Latin America and the European Communities

Includes bibliographyRevisa los impedimentos que han obstaculizado las relaciones entre America Latina y las Comunidades Europeas y propone cambios en la politica comercial de los paises de la region, que permita el mejoramiento de estas relaciones

Alien Registration- Baldinelli, Louis (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/21354/thumbnail.jp

Drink Up: A Study of the Food-Safe Quality of Ceramics Glazes with the Addition of Rutile

Food-safe ceramic glazes can be altered with additives and become harmful to the user of the ceramic ware. Rutile is a frequently used material added to glazes to create variegation in glazes, but it is commonly known to cause defects in the glaze that can be unsafe for food. This experiment is conducted to determine if rutile can be added to food-safe glazes and still retain their food-safe status. A food-safe glaze is a shiny, thin coating that does not leach chemicals or has an excess of colorants; common food-safe glazes are white liners and clear glazes as they have no additives. To test that food-safe glazes cannot be food-safe with larger additions of rutile, an experiment testing seven different percentages of rutile in four glazes, on five commonly used clay bodies was conducted. 140 cups and test tiles were glazed in the 140 variations and put through seven separate tests to verify their food-safe status. The results showed that sixty-seven out of the 140 variations are food-safe, the majority, twenty-six of the sixty-seven, from John Britt’s Spearmint glaze; conversely, John Britt’s Licorice only had eight variations that were food-safe, five of which were the control cups with no rutile added. The results suggest that rutile can be added to ceramic glazes in small amounts, depending on the clay body being used. With these results, rutile is a viable option to add these specific ceramic glazes and still be food-safe

Agrobiodiversity Conservation as a Coping Strategy: Adapting to Climate Change in the Northern Highlands of Bolivia

This article is the result of my observations in two Aymara communities of the Northern Bolivian Altiplano, where I am collecting data for my PhD thesis. My thesis aims to explore the connections between on-farm conservation of local crop varieties and migration of Aymara people away from their communities of origin in the Altiplano to urban areas. While studying the conservation of agrobiodiversity performed by Bolivian farmers, I investigated the use of different crop varieties, conserved by indigenous people, in response to climate change. The consequences of climate change are evident in the rural areas of the Altiplano Norte: prolonged droughts, followed by heavy precipitations and floods. Agriculture is severely affected by such extreme climatic events and the response of the farmers varies. In this article, I focus on a possible adaptation approach enabled by a strategic use of the numerous crop varieties that many Aymara farmers still own. Although the relevant knowledge is slowly being lost, some agrobiodiversity “champions” still hold it and use it to adapt sustainably to new climatic conditions. Research about the agronomic characteristics and the use of local varieties is still needed to provide indigenous farmers with further options to face environmental and climatic change in the Altiplano Norte

Discovery of a planetary nebula surrounding the symbiotic star DT Serpentis

We report the discovery of a planetary nebula centered on the poorly studied symbiotic binary star DT Ser. In a few other symbiotic stars spatially resolved nebulae have been discovered: however, only one of them might be a genuine planetary nebula, while the others are likely to originate in complex mass ejections episodes from the interacting binary central stars, possibly related to nova-like outbursts. The rim of the planetary nebula around DT Ser is severely distorted toward a brighter star, 5 arcsec away. In infrared WISE data, this star shows the presence of a detached cold dust shell such as those observed in post-AGB stars. The apparent association of the symbiotic star and its planetary nebula with the nearby possible post-AGB object is discussed. We also discuss the sparse and conflicting literature data that could support an observed variability of the surface brightness of the planetary nebula. The puzzling and intriguing characteristics displayed by DT Ser are surely worth further and more detailed investigations.Comment: in press in A&