Relationship between caregivers’ income generation activities and their children’s animal source food intake

Enhancing Child Nutrition through Animal Source Food Management (ENAM) project provided financial and technical support for caregivers’ Income Generation Activities (IGA) with the aim of increasing their access to Animal Source Foods (ASF) for improved child nutrition. Using baseline data from the ENAM project, this study assessed the relationship between the type of caregivers’ IGA -whether it is related to ASF [ASF-R] or unrelated [ASF-U] - and the quantity and diversity of ASF consumed by their children. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain data on household socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and children’s ASF consumption in the past week from 530 caregivers of children 2-to5 years old in 12 communities in three agro-ecological zones of Ghana. A weighed food record of children’s dietary intakes was also completed during two 12-hour home observations on a randomly selected sample of 117 children. Approximately 6% (n=32) of caregivers were not engaged in any IGA. Of the caregivers who were involved in an IGA (n=498), approximately one-third of them were engaged in an ASF-R IGA, such as selling smoked fish, selling eggs and the selling cooked food that included ASF. Caregivers (67%) were engaged in ASF-U IGA, such as crop farming, petty trading in non ASF items and artisanal work. The quantity and diversity of ASF consumed by the children did not differ (p=0.988 and p=0.593, respectively) by the type of caregiver IGA. However, after accounting for agro-ecological zone, being involved in an ASF-R IGA positively predicted children’s ASF diversity (p<0.001). The number of children in the household negatively predicted children’s ASF diversity (p=0.011) whereas high/medium household wealth status tended to be positively associated with ASF diversity (p=0.064).The study suggested that there is need to promote ASF-R IGA among caregivers to increase the ability to purchase more varied and nutritious food items for improving children’s growth

Why is there no queer international theory?

Over the last decade, Queer Studies have become Global Queer Studies, generating significant insights into key international political processes. Yet, the transformation from Queer to Global Queer has left the discipline of International Relations largely unaffected, which begs the question: if Queer Studies has gone global, why has the discipline of International Relations not gone somewhat queer? Or, to put it in Martin Wight’s provocative terms, why is there no Queer International Theory? This article claims that the presumed non-existence of Queer International Theory is an effect of how the discipline of International Relations combines homologization, figuration, and gentrification to code various types of theory as failures in order to manage the conduct of international theorizing in all its forms. This means there are generalizable lessons to be drawn from how the discipline categorizes Queer International Theory out of existence to bring a specific understanding of International Relations into existence

The Exoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope (EXCITE)

Although there are a large number of known exoplanets, there is little data on their global atmospheric properties. Phase-resolved spectroscopy of transiting planets – continuous spectroscopic observation of planets during their full orbits – probes varied depths and longitudes in the atmospheres thus measuring their three-dimensional thermal and chemical structure and contributing to our understanding of their global circulation. Planets with characteristics suitable for atmospheric characterization have orbits of several days, so phase curve observations are highly resource intensive, especially for shared use facilities. The Exoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope (EXCITE) is a balloon-borne near-infrared spectrometer designed to observe from 1 to 5 μm to perform phaseresolved spectroscopy of hot Jupiters. Flying from a long duration balloon (LDB) platform, EXCITE will have the stability to continuously stare at targets for days at a time and the sensitivity to produce data of the quality and quantity needed to significantly advance our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres. We describe the EXCITE design and show results of analytic and numerical calculations of the instrument sensitivity. We show that an instrument like EXCITE will produce a wealth of quality data, both complementing and serving as a critical bridge between current and future space-based near infrared spectroscopic instruments

Testing the efficacy of voluntary urban greenhouse gas emissions inventories

Drawing from an original dataset of urban metropolitan carbon footprints, we explore the correlations between national level climate change commitments and subnational level inventories. We ask: Does voluntary reporting allow a city to perform better than national average? Does ambitiousness in commitment have an impact on performance in footprint reduction? Does having long-term commitments affect performance in footprint reduction? Do binding national level commitments (such as those under the Kyoto Protocol) affect performance at the city level in terms of footprint reduction? To provide answers, we synthesize data from the largest repository of voluntary sub-national commitments and actions towards footprint reduction and greenhouse gas inventories from around the world, the Carbonn platform. More than 500 cities report at least one action, commitment or inventory to this database. We find, using a subset of this database, perhaps counter intuitively that cities with more ambitious commitments do not necessarily have steeper reductions in emissions. Our data also suggest that having long-term self-reported goals does not make the cities perform better in terms of footprint reduction. This appears to be true for both government and community commitments reported. Lastly, and positively, our data did reveal a statistically significant effect for cities belonging to countries that had committed to the Kyoto Protocol, suggesting the necessity of binding national (and supranational) climate targets

Super-resolution Reconstruction MRI Application in Fetal Neck Masses and Congenital High Airway Obstruction Syndrome

OBJECTIVE: Reliable airway patency diagnosis in fetal tracheolaryngeal obstruction is crucial to select and plan ex utero intrapartum treatment (EXIT) surgery. We compared the clinical utility of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) super-resolution reconstruction (SRR) of the trachea, which can mitigate unpredictable fetal motion effects, with standard 2-dimensional (2D) MRI for airway patency diagnosis and assessment of fetal neck mass anatomy. STUDY DESIGN: A single-center case series of 7 consecutive singleton pregnancies with complex upper airway obstruction (2013-2019). SETTINGS: A tertiary fetal medicine unit performing EXIT surgery. METHODS: MRI SRR of the trachea was performed involving rigid motion correction of acquired 2D MRI slices combined with robust outlier detection to reconstruct an isotropic high-resolution volume. SRR, 2D MRI, and paired data were blindly assessed by 3 radiologists in 3 experimental rounds. RESULTS: Airway patency was correctly diagnosed in 4 of 7 cases (57%) with 2D MRI as compared with 2 of 7 cases (29%) with SRR alone or paired 2D MRI and SRR. Radiologists were more confident (P = .026) in airway patency diagnosis when using 2D MRI than SRR. Anatomic clarity was higher with SRR (P = .027) or paired data (P = .041) in comparison with 2D MRI alone. Radiologists detected further anatomic details by using paired images versus 2D MRI alone (P < .001). Cognitive load, as assessed by the NASA Task Load Index, was increased with paired or SRR data in comparison with 2D MRI. CONCLUSION: The addition of SRR to 2D MRI does not increase fetal airway patency diagnostic accuracy but does provide improved anatomic information, which may benefit surgical planning of EXIT procedures

Formation of laser plasma channels in a stationary gas

The formation of plasma channels with nonuniformity of about +- 3.5% has been demonstrated. The channels had a density of 1.2x10^19 cm-3 with a radius of 15 um and with length >= 2.5 mm. The channels were formed by 0.3 J, 100 ps laser pulses in a nonflowing gas, contained in a cylindrical chamber. The laser beam passed through the chamber along its axis via pinholes in the chamber walls. A plasma channel with an electron density on the order of 10^18 - 10^19 cm-3 was formed in pure He, N2, Ar, and Xe. A uniform channel forms at proper time delays and in optimal pressure ranges, which depend on the sort of gas. The influence of the interaction of the laser beam with the gas leaking out of the chamber through the pinholes was found insignificant. However, the formation of an ablative plasma on the walls of the pinholes by the wings of the radial profile of the laser beam plays an important role in the plasma channel formation and its uniformity. A low current glow discharge initiated in the chamber slightly improves the uniformity of the plasma channel, while a high current arc discharge leads to the formation of overdense plasma near the front pinhole and further refraction of the laser beam. The obtained results show the feasibility of creating uniform plasma channels in non-flowing gas targets.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Physics of Plasma

Unusually Long Palindromes Are Abundant in Mitochondrial Control Regions of Insects and Nematodes

BACKGROUND: Palindromes are known to be involved in a variety of biological processes. In the present investigation we carried out a comprehensive analysis of palindromes in the mitochondrial control regions (CRs) of several animal groups to study their frequency, distribution and architecture to gain insights into the origin of replication of mtDNA. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Many species of Arthropoda, Nematoda, Mollusca and Annelida harbor palindromes and inverted repeats (IRs) in their CRs. Lower animals like cnidarians and higher animal groups like chordates are almost devoid of palindromes and IRs. The study revealed that palindrome occurrence is positively correlated with the AT content of CRs, and that IRs are likely to give rise to longer palindromes. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The present study attempts to explain possible reasons and gives in silico evidence for absence of palindromes and IRs from CR of vertebrate mtDNA and acquisition and retention of the same in insects. Study of CRs of different animal phyla uncovered unique architecture of this locus, be it high abundance of long palindromes and IRs in CRs of Insecta and Nematoda, or short IRs of 10–20 nucleotides with a spacer region of 12–14 bases in subphylum Chelicerata, or nearly complete of absence of any long palindromes and IRs in Vertebrata, Cnidaria and Echinodermata