Framing Feminization of Agriculture: From Gender-environment Theories to International Environmental Law

ABSTRACT: Since 70s the debate about women and environment has registered a considerable change in the perception of the role played by women and different conceptual and methodological approaches developed to deal with the women ­– gender – environment interrelationship and to compare the feminist standpoint with the androcentric culture that makes male (andros) at the center of the economic, socio-cultural and political life.This paper, which focuses on the feminization of agriculture phenomenon, i.e. women’s increasing work and responsibilities in agriculture, explores its meaning in terms of women’s empowerment and examines the contribution of feminist strands of thought (such as ecofeminism – women and environment – gender, environment and sustainable development) in fostering the gender paradigm in environmental concerns, plans for agricultural and rural development.The author aims at verifying whether the international environmental law system has integrated the ability of feminist perspectives to position women’s rights and conditions at the core of environmental issues by (en)-gendering some changes and criticizing the power and distribution of resources that have consistently been associated with masculinity

Genetic Mapping of the Incompatibility Locus in Olive and Development of a Linked Sequence-Tagged Site Marker

The genetic control of self-incompatibility (SI) has been recently disclosed in olive. Inter-varietal crossing confirmed the presence of only two incompatibility groups (G1 and G2), suggesting a simple Mendelian inheritance of the trait. A double digest restriction associated DNA (ddRAD) sequencing of a biparental population segregating for incompatibility groups has been performed and high-density linkage maps were constructed in order to map the SI locus and identify gene candidates and linked markers. The progeny consisted of a full-sib family of 229 individuals derived from the cross \u2018Leccino\u2019 (G1) 7 \u2018Dolce Agogia\u2019 (G2) varieties, segregating 1:1 (G1:G2), in accordance with a diallelic self-incompatibility (DSI) model. A total of 16,743 single nucleotide polymorphisms was identified, 7,006 in the female parent \u2018Leccino\u2019 and 9,737 in the male parent \u2018Dolce Agogia.\u2019 Each parental map consisted of 23 linkage groups and showed an unusual large size (5,680 cM in \u2018Leccino\u2019 and 3,538 cM in \u2018Dolce Agogia\u2019). Recombination was decreased across all linkage groups in pollen mother cells of \u2018Dolce Agogia,\u2019 the parent with higher heterozygosity, compared to megaspore mother cells of \u2018Leccino,\u2019 in a context of a species that showed exceptionally high recombination rates. A subset of 109 adult plants was assigned to either incompatibility group by a stigma test and the diallelic self-incompatibility (DSI) locus was mapped to an interval of 5.4 cM on linkage group 18. This region spanned a size of approximately 300 Kb in the olive genome assembly. We developed a sequence-tagged site marker in the DSI locus and identified five haplotypes in 57 cultivars with known incompatibility group assignment. A combination of two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was sufficient to predict G1 or G2 phenotypes in olive cultivars, enabling early marker-assisted selection of compatible genotypes and allowing for a rapid screening of inter-compatibility among cultivars in order to guarantee effective fertilization and increase olive production. The construction of high-density linkage maps has led to the development of the first functional marker in olive and provided positional candidate genes in the SI locus

ALTERATION OF GENE EXPRESSION IN LEUKOCYTES FROM RECOMBINANT SOMATOTROPIN TREATED ANIMALS: SEARCHING FOR INSPECTION INDICATORS

Besides immunochemical approaches, biomolecular studies can be carried out in order to discover a greater number of biological indicators to be exploited for the identification of bovines treated with recombinant somatotropin (rbST). With this aim, we analysed the expression of a number of genes related to the somatotropic axis in leucocytes from rbST treated cows and non-treated animals. Significant differences were observed in the genes IGF-1,IGFBP-1, IGFBP-4 and the I- 5'UTR variant of the GHR gene

Precise mirror alignment and basic performance of the RICH detector of the NA62 experiment at CERN

The Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector is crucial for the identification of charged particles in the NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS. The detector commissioning was completed in 2016 by the precise alignment of mirrors using reconstructed tracks. The alignment procedure and measurement of the basic performance are described. Ring radius resolution, ring centre resolution, single hit resolution and mean number of hits per ring are evaluated for positron tracks. The contribution of the residual mirror misalignment to the performance is calculated.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure

Light Detection System and Time Resolution of the NA62 RICH

A large RICH detector is used in NA62 to suppress the muon contamination in the charged pion sample by a factor of 100 in the momentum range between 15 and 35 GeV/c. Cherenkov light is collected by 1952 photomultipliers placed at the upstream end. In this paper the characterization of the photomultipliers and the dedicated Frontend and Data Acquisition electronics are described, the time resolution and the light detection efficiency measurement are presented.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure

Workshop summary -- Kaons@CERN 2023

Kaon physics is at a turning point -- while the rare-kaon experiments NA62 and KOTO are in full swing, the end of their lifetime is approaching and the future experimental landscape needs to be defined. With HIKE, KOTO-II and LHCb-Phase-II on the table and under scrutiny, it is a very good moment in time to take stock and contemplate about the opportunities these experiments and theoretical developments provide for particle physics in the coming decade and beyond. This paper provides a compact summary of talks and discussions from the Kaons@CERN 2023 workshop.Comment: 54 pages, Summary of Kaons@CERN 23 workshop, references and clarifications adde

Workshop summary:Kaons@CERN 2023

Kaon physics is at a turning point – while the rare-kaon experiments NA62 and KOTO are in full swing, the end of their lifetime is approaching and the future experimental landscape needs to be defined. With HIKE, KOTO-II and LHCb-Phase-II on the table and under scrutiny, it is a very good moment in time to take stock and contemplate about the opportunities these experiments and theoretical developments provide for particle physics in the coming decade and beyond. This paper provides a compact summary of talks and discussions from the Kaons@CERN 2023 workshop, held in September 2023 at CERN

Activity-Based Funding of Hospitals and Its Impact on Mortality, Readmission, Discharge Destination, Severity of Illness, and Volume of Care: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Activity-based funding (ABF) of hospitals is a policy intervention intended to re-shape incentives across health systems through the use of diagnosis-related groups. Many countries are adopting or actively promoting ABF. We assessed the effect of ABF on key measures potentially affecting patients and health care systems: mortality (acute and post-acute care); readmission rates; discharge rate to post-acute care following hospitalization; severity of illness; volume of care.     Methods: We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of the worldwide evidence produced since 1980. We included all studies reporting original quantitative data comparing the impact of ABF versus alternative funding systems in acute care settings, regardless of language. We searched 9 electronic databases (OVID MEDLINE, EMBASE, OVID Healthstar, CINAHL, Cochrane CENTRAL, Health Technology Assessment, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Business Source), hand-searched reference lists, and consulted with experts. Paired reviewers independently screened for eligibility, abstracted data, and assessed study credibility according to a pre-defined scoring system, resolving conflicts by discussion or adjudication.     Results: Of 16,565 unique citations, 50 US studies and 15 studies from 9 other countries proved eligible (i.e. Australia, Austria, England, Germany, Israel, Italy, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland). We found consistent and robust differences between ABF and no-ABF in discharge to post-acute care, showing a 24% increase with ABF (pooled relative risk = 1.24, 95% CI 1.18–1.31). Results also suggested a possible increase in readmission with ABF, and an apparent increase in severity of illness, perhaps reflecting differences in diagnostic coding. Although we found no consistent, systematic differences in mortality rates and volume of care, results varied widely across studies, some suggesting appreciable benefits from ABF, and others suggesting deleterious consequences.     Conclusions: Transitioning to ABF is associated with important policy- and clinically-relevant changes. Evidence suggests substantial increases in admissions to post-acute care following hospitalization, with implications for system capacity and equitable access to care. High variability in results of other outcomes leaves the impact in particular settings uncertain, and may not allow a jurisdiction to predict if ABF would be harmless. Decision-makers considering ABF should plan for likely increases in post-acute care admissions, and be aware of the large uncertainty around impacts on other critical outcomes

Performance of the NA62 trigger system

The NA62 experiment at CERN targets the measurement of the ultra-rare K+ ->pi+ nu nu decay, and carries out a broad physics programme that includes probes for symmetry violations and searches for exotic particles. Data were collected in 2016–2018 using a multi-level trigger system, which is described highlighting performance studies based on 2018 data