Contested land: an analysis of multi-layered conflicts in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia

"In the lowland areas of Sumatra, conflicts over land and natural resources are increasing as fundamental land use transformation processes take place and the region is gradually integrated into globalized markets. Set against the background of the conflict arena of Bungku village, Jambi province, this paper describes and analyzes the struggle for land between a group of indigenous people, the Batin Sembilan, and an oil palm company, PT Asiatic Persada. By highlighting the path dependency of land conflicts, the article shows that access to land results from concurring but ambivalent institutional regimes and power asymmetries, leading to an ostensible state of equilibrium in a post-frontier area." (author's abstract)"Grundlegende Veränderungen in der Landnutzung sowie die fortschreitende Einbindung in globalisierte Märkte führen in den Tieflandregionen Sumatras zu zunehmend gewalttätig ausgetragenen Konflikten um Land und natürliche Ressourcen. Vor dem Hintergrund der Konfliktarena von Bungku, einem Dorf in der Provinz Jambi, beschreibt und analysiert der Beitrag den Kampf um Land zwischen den indigenen Batin Sembilan und einem Palmölunternehmen, PT Asiatic Persada. Der Artikel zeigt anhand der Pfadabhängigkeit von Landkonflikten, dass Zugang zu Land aus der Gleichzeitigkeit und Ambivalenz institutioneller Systeme und Machtasymmetrien resultiert, was zu einem scheinbaren Gleichgewichtszustand in Post-Frontier-Regionen führt." (Autorenreferat

G313.3+00.3: A New Planetary Nebula discovered by the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Spitzer Space Telescope

We present a new planetary nebula, first identified in images from the Australia Telescope Compact Array, although not recognized at that time. Recent observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope during the GLIMPSE Legacy program have rediscovered the object. The high-resolution radio and infrared images enable the identification of the central star or its wind, the recognition of the radio emission as thermal, and the probable presence of polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons in and around the source. These lead to the conclusion that G313.3+00.3 is a planetary nebula. This object is of particular interest because it was discovered solely through radio and mid-infrared imaging, without any optical (or near-infrared) confirmation, and acts as a proof of concept for the discovery of many more highly extinguished planetary nebulae. G313.3+00.3 is well-resolved by both the instruments with which it was identified, and suffers extreme reddening due to its location in the Scutum-Crux spiral arm.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX (aastex), incl. 8 PostScript (eps) figures and 1 table. Accepted by ApJ (Part 1

Plantation kingdom: the American South and its global commodities

Plantation Kingdom traces the rise and fall of America’s plantation economy. Written by four renowned historians, the book demonstrates how an international capitalist system rose out of slave labor, indentured servitude, and the mass production of agricultural commodities for world markets. Vast estates continued to exist after emancipation, but tenancy and sharecropping replaced slavery’s work gangs across most of the plantation world. Poverty and forced labor haunted the region well into the twentieth century. The book explores the importance of slavery to the Old South, the astounding profitability of plantation agriculture, and the legacy of emancipation. It also examines the place of American producers in world markets and considers the impact of globalization and international competition 150 years ago. Written for scholars and students alike, Plantation Kingdom is an accessible and fascinating study

A joint cross-border investigation of a cluster of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Austria, Romania and Germany in 2014 using classic, genotyping and whole genome sequencing methods: lessons learnt

Molecular surveillance of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) using 24-loci MIRU-VNTR in the European Union suggests the occurrence of international transmission. In early 2014, Austria detected a molecular MDR-TB cluster of five isolates. Links to Romania and Germany prompted the three countries to investigate possible cross-border MDR-TB transmission jointly. We searched genotyping databases, genotyped additional isolates from Romania, used whole genome sequencing (WGS) to infer putative transmission links, and investigated pairwise epidemiological links and patient mobility. Ten isolates from 10 patients shared the same 24-loci MIRU-VNTR pattern. Within this cluster, WGS defined two subgroups of four patients each. The first comprised an MDR-TB patient from Romania who had sought medical care in Austria and two patients from Austria. The second comprised patients, two of them epidemiologically linked, who lived in three different countries but had the same city of provenance in Romania. Our findings strongly suggested that the two cases in Austrian citizens resulted from a newly introduced MDR-TB strain, followed by domestic transmission. For the other cases, transmission probably occurred in the same city of provenance. To prevent further MDR-TB transmission, we need to ensure universal access to early and adequate therapy and collaborate closely in tuberculosis care beyond administrative borders