Planned relocation in Peru: advancing from well-meant legislation to good practice

Along Peru’s rainforest rivers, rising flood extremes are increasingly exceeding coping capacities of vulnerable households. Peru has detailed legislation that embraces planned relocation as a strategic solution to such situations and various relocation projects are underway across the country. This research brief analyzes well-being consequences for two communities requesting relocation, using qualitative data collected from experts and 30 affected people. Initial results emphasize that weak governance, poverty, third-party involvement, and community action have influenced relocation outcomes. Delays and fragmented implementation have threatened people’s well-being. One community, waiting for land to relocate since 2015, has suffered from continued hazard exposure, deteriorated material conditions, and reduced subjective well-being. The second community achieved relocation only after a decade in detrimental limbo. Although livelihood challenges persist, its inhabitants now benefit from better market access and decreased exposure, leading to higher subjective well-being. With rising needs for relocation worldwide, the cases highlight that detailed legislation is not sufficient to safeguard people’s well-being. Advancing from well-meant legislation to good practice requires adequate institutional capacity, effective mechanisms for oversight and accountability, better engagement of third parties, and dedicated efforts to strengthen community agency

Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) of aluminium alloy AlMg5Mn with energy-reduced gas metal arc welding (GMAW)

Large-scale aluminum parts are used in aerospace and automotive industries, due to excellent strength, light weight, and the good corrosion resistance of the material. Additive manufacturing processes enable both cost and time savings in the context of component manufacturing. Thereby, wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is particularly suitable for the production of large volume parts due to deposition rates in the range of kilograms per hour. Challenges during the manufacturing process of aluminum alloys, such as porosity or poor mechanical properties, can be overcome by using arc technologies with adaptable energy input. In this study, WAAM of AlMg5Mn alloy was systematically investigated by using the gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process. Herein, correlations between the energy input and the resulting temperature–time-regimes show the effect on resulting microstructure, weld seam irregularities and the mechanical properties of additively manufactured aluminum parts. Therefore, multilayer walls were built layer wise using the cold metal transfer (CMT) process including conventional CMT, CMT advanced and CMT pulse advanced arc modes. These processing strategies were analyzed by means of energy input, whereby the geometrical features of the layers could be controlled as well as the porosity to area portion to below 1% in the WAAM parts. Furthermore, the investigations show the that mechanical properties like tensile strength and material hardness can be adapted throughout the energy input per unit length significantl

Phase Coexistence of Mn Trimer Clusters and Antiferromagnetic Mn Islands on Ir(111)

Clusters supported by solid substrates are prime candidates for heterogeneous catalysis and can be prepared in various ways. While mass-selected soft-landing methods are often used for the generation of monodisperse particles, self-assembly typically leads to a range of different cluster sizes. Here we show by scanning tunneling microscopy measurements that in the initial stages of growth Mn forms trimers on a close-packed hexagonal Ir surface, providing a route for self-organized monodisperse cluster formation on an isotropic metallic surface. For an increasing amount of Mn, first a phase with reconstructed monolayer islands is formed, until at full coverage a pseudomorphic Mn phase evolves which is the most densely packed one of the three different observed Mn phases on Ir(111). The magnetic state of both the reconstructed islands and the pseudomorphic film is found to be the prototypical antiferromagnetic N\'eel state with 120{\deg} spin rotation between all nearest neighbors in the hexagonal layer.Comment: Founded by Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie Actions; SPEAR project, with grant number 95567

Groundswell : Preparing for Internal Climate Migration

This report, which focuses on three regions—Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America that together represent 55 percent of the developing world’s population—finds that climate change will push tens of millions of people to migrate within their countries by 2050. It projects that without concrete climate and development action, just over 143 million people—or around 2.8 percent of the population of these three regions—could be forced to move within their own countries to escape the slow-onset impacts of climate change. They will migrate from less viable areas with lower water availability and crop productivity and from areas affected by rising sea level and storm surges. The poorest and most climate vulnerable areas will be hardest hit. These trends, alongside the emergence of “hotspots” of climate in- and out-migration, will have major implications for climate-sensitive sectors and for the adequacy of infrastructure and social support systems. The report finds that internal climate migration will likely rise through 2050 and then accelerate unless there are significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and robust development action

Oral mucosa tissue gene expression profiling before, during, and after radiation therapy for tonsil squamous cell carcinoma

Radiation-therapy (RT) induces mucositis, a clinically challenging condition with limited prophylactic interventions and no predictive tests. In this pilot study, we applied global gene-expression analysis on serial human oral mucosa tissue and blood cells from patients with tonsil squamous cell cancer (TSCC) to identify genes involved in mucositis pathogenesis.Eight patients with TSCC each provided consecutive buccal biopsies and blood cells before, after 7 days of RT treatment, and 20 days following RT. We monitored clinical mucositis and performed gene-expression analysis on tissue samples. We obtained control tissue from nine healthy individuals. After RT, expression was upregulated in apoptosis inducer and inhibitor genes, EDA2R and MDM2, and in POLH, a DNA-repair polymerase. Expression was downregulated in six members of the histone cluster family, e.g., HIST1H3B. Gene expression related to proliferation and differentiation was altered, including MKI67 (downregulated), which encodes the Ki-67-proliferation marker, and KRT16 (upregulated), which encodes keratin16. These alterations were not associated with the clinical mucositis grade. However, the expression of LY6G6C, which encodes a surface immunoregulatory protein, was upregulated before treatment in three cases of clinical none/mild mucositis, but not in four cases of ulcerative mucositis.RT caused molecular changes related to apoptosis, DNA-damage, DNA-repair, and proliferation without a correlation to the severity of clinical mucositis. LY6G6C may be a potential protective biomarker for ulcerative mucositis. Based on these results, our study model of consecutive human biopsies will be useful in designing a prospective clinical validation trial to characterize molecular mucositis and identify predictive biomarkers

Diet and lifestyle in relation to small intestinal cancer risk: findings from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)

PurposeThe incidence of small intestinal cancer (SIC) is increasing, however, its aetiology remains unclear due to a lack of data from large-scale prospective cohorts. We examined modifiable risk factors in relation to SIC overall and by histological subtype.MethodsWe analysed 450,107 participants enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate univariable and multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).ResultsDuring an average of 14.1 years of follow-up, 160 incident SICs (62 carcinoids, 51 adenocarcinomas) were identified. Whilst univariable models revealed a positive association for current versus never smokers and SIC (HR, 95% CI: 1.77, 1.21-2.60), this association attenuated in multivariable models. In energy-adjusted models, there was an inverse association across vegetable intake tertiles for SIC overall (HRT3vsT1, 95% CI: 0.48, 0.32-0.71, p-trend: < 0.001) and for carcinoids (HRT3vsT1, 95% CI: 0.44, 0.24-0.82, p-trend: 0.01); however, these attenuated in multivariable models. Total fat was also inversely associated with total SIC and both subtypes but only in the second tertile (SIC univariable HRT2vsT1, 95% CI: 0.57, 0.38-0.84; SIC multivariable HRT2vsT1, 95% CI: 0.55, 0.37-0.81). Physical activity, intake of alcohol, red or processed meat, dairy products, or fibre were not associated with SIC.ConclusionThese exploratory analyses found limited evidence for a role of modifiable risk factors in SIC aetiology. However, sample size was limited, particularly for histologic subtypes; therefore, larger studies are needed to delineate these associations and robustly identify risk factors for SIC

Diet and lifestyle in relation to small intestinal cancer risk: findings from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)

PurposeThe incidence of small intestinal cancer (SIC) is increasing, however, its aetiology remains unclear due to a lack of data from large-scale prospective cohorts. We examined modifiable risk factors in relation to SIC overall and by histological subtype.MethodsWe analysed 450,107 participants enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate univariable and multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).ResultsDuring an average of 14.1 years of follow-up, 160 incident SICs (62 carcinoids, 51 adenocarcinomas) were identified. Whilst univariable models revealed a positive association for current versus never smokers and SIC (HR, 95% CI: 1.77, 1.21-2.60), this association attenuated in multivariable models. In energy-adjusted models, there was an inverse association across vegetable intake tertiles for SIC overall (HRT3vsT1, 95% CI: 0.48, 0.32-0.71, p-trend: < 0.001) and for carcinoids (HRT3vsT1, 95% CI: 0.44, 0.24-0.82, p-trend: 0.01); however, these attenuated in multivariable models. Total fat was also inversely associated with total SIC and both subtypes but only in the second tertile (SIC univariable HRT2vsT1, 95% CI: 0.57, 0.38-0.84; SIC multivariable HRT2vsT1, 95% CI: 0.55, 0.37-0.81). Physical activity, intake of alcohol, red or processed meat, dairy products, or fibre were not associated with SIC.ConclusionThese exploratory analyses found limited evidence for a role of modifiable risk factors in SIC aetiology. However, sample size was limited, particularly for histologic subtypes; therefore, larger studies are needed to delineate these associations and robustly identify risk factors for SIC