Climate change favors rice production at higher elevations in Colombia

Rice (Oriza sativa) feeds nearly half of the world’s population. Regional and national studies in Asia suggest that rice production will suffer under climate change, but researchers conducted few studies for other parts of the world. This research identifies suitable areas for cultivating irrigated rice in Colombia under current climates and for the 2050s, according to the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenario. The methodology uses known locations of the crop, environmental variables, and maximum entropy and probabilistic methods to develop niche-based models for estimating the potential geographic distribution of irrigated rice. Results indicate that future climate change in Colombia could reduce the area that is suitable for rice production by 60%, from 4.4 to 1.8 million hectares. Low-lying rice production regions could be the most susceptible to changing environmental conditions, while mid-altitude valleys could see improvements in rice-growing conditions. In contrast to a country like China where rice production can move to higher latitudes, rice adaptation in tropical Colombia will favor higher elevations. These results suggest adaptation strategies for the Colombian rice sector. Farmers can adopt climate-resilient varieties or change water and agronomic management practices, or both. Other farmers may consider abandoning rice production for some other crop or activity

Resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases in Venezuela as a regional public health threat in the Americas

Venezuela’s tumbling economy and authoritarian rule have precipitated an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Hyperinflation rates now exceed 45,000%, and Venezuela’s health system is in free fall. The country is experiencing a massive exodus of biomedical scientists and qualified healthcare professionals. Reemergence of arthropod-borne and vaccine-preventable diseases has sparked serious epidemics that also affect neighboring countries. In this article, we discuss the ongoing epidemics of measles and diphtheria in Venezuela and their disproportionate impact on indigenous populations. We also discuss the potential for reemergence of poliomyelitis and conclude that action to halt the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases within Venezuela is a matter of urgency for the country and the region. We further provide specific recommendations for addressing this crisis. © 2019 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). All rights reserved

Spread of a SARS-CoV-2 variant through Europe in the summer of 2020.

Following its emergence in late 2019, the spread of SARS-CoV-21,2 has been tracked by phylogenetic analysis of viral genome sequences in unprecedented detail3–5. Although the virus spread globally in early 2020 before borders closed, intercontinental travel has since been greatly reduced. However, travel within Europe resumed in the summer of 2020. Here we report on a SARS-CoV-2 variant, 20E (EU1), that was identified in Spain in early summer 2020 and subsequently spread across Europe. We find no evidence that this variant has increased transmissibility, but instead demonstrate how rising incidence in Spain, resumption of travel, and lack of effective screening and containment may explain the variant’s success. Despite travel restrictions, we estimate that 20E (EU1) was introduced hundreds of times to European countries by summertime travellers, which is likely to have undermined local efforts to minimize infection with SARS-CoV-2. Our results illustrate how a variant can rapidly become dominant even in the absence of a substantial transmission advantage in favourable epidemiological settings. Genomic surveillance is critical for understanding how travel can affect transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and thus for informing future containment strategies as travel resumes. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited

Track D Social Science, Human Rights and Political Science

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138414/1/jia218442.pd

Resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases in Venezuela as a regional public health threat in the Americas

Venezuela’s tumbling economy and authoritarian rule have precipitated an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Hyperinflation rates now exceed 45,000%, and Venezuela’s health system is in free fall. The country is experiencing a massive exodus of biomedical scientists and qualified healthcare professionals. Reemergence of arthropod-borne and vaccine-preventable diseases has sparked serious epidemics that also affect neighboring countries. In this article, we discuss the ongoing epidemics of measles and diphtheria in Venezuela and their disproportionate impact on indigenous populations. We also discuss the potential for reemergence of poliomyelitis and conclude that action to halt the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases within Venezuela is a matter of urgency for the country and the region. We further provide specific recommendations for addressing this crisis. © 2019 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). All rights reserved

Microclimatic characterization and productivity of coffee plants grown under shade of pigeon pea in Southern Brazil Caracterização microclimática e produtividade de cafeeiros sombreados com guandu no Sul do Brasil

Recent studies on coffee (Coffea arabica L.) cultivation in agroforestry systems in Southern Brazil have shown the potential of partial shading to improve management of this crop. The objective of this work was to evaluate microclimatic conditions and their effects on coffee production of plants shaded with pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) in comparison to unshaded ones, from May 2001 to August 2002 in Londrina, State of Paraná, Brazil. The appraised microclimatic characteristics were: global radiation, photosynthetic and radiation balance; air, leaf and soil temperatures; and soil humidity. Shading caused significant reduction in incident global solar radiation, photosynthetically active radiation and net radiation, and attenuated maximum leaf, air and soil temperatures, during the day. Shade also reduced the rate of cooling of night air and leaf temperatures, especially during nights with radiative frost. Soil moisture at 0-10 cm depth was higher under shade. The shaded coffee plants produced larger cherries due to slower maturation, resulting in larger bean size. Nevertheless, plants under shade emitted less plagiotropic branches, with smaller number of nodes per branch, and fewer nodes with fruits, resulting in a large reduction in coffee production. These results show the need to find an optimal tree density and management that do not compromise coffee production and protect against extreme temperatures.<br>Recentes estudos sobre cafeeiros (Coffea arabica L.) cultivados em sistemas agroflorestais no Sul do Brasil têm mostrado o potencial do sombreamento parcial no manejo desta cultura. O objectivo deste trabalho foi avaliar as condições do microclima e seus efeitos na produção de café sombreado com guandu (Cajanus cajan), em comparação ao cultivado a pleno sol, no período de maio de 2001 a agosto de 2002 em Londrina, PR. As características microclimáticas avaliadas foram: radiação global, fotossintética e saldo de radiação; temperaturas do ar, da folha e do solo; e umidade do solo. O sombreamento causou significativa redução na radiação solar global incidente, na radiação fotossinteticamente ativa e na radiação líquida, e atenuou as temperaturas máximas foliar, do ar e do solo, durante o dia. O sombreamento também evitou o declínio acentuado, durante a noite, das temperaturas do ar e da folha, especialmente durante noites com geadas de radiação. Os valores de umidade do solo, na camada 0-10 cm de profundidade, foram maiores nos cafeeiros sombreados. As plantas sombreadas produzem frutos maiores em virtude da maturação mais lenta, entretanto, emitem menos ramos plagiotrópicos, com menor número de nós por ramo e poucos nós com frutos, o que resulta na redução da produção de café. Estes resultados evidenciam a necessidade de se definir uma densidade ótima de sombreamento, que não comprometa a produção e proteja contra as temperaturas extremas

A multiwavelength analysis of a collection of short-duration GRBs observed between 2012 and 2015

We investigate the prompt emission and the afterglow properties of short-duration gamma-ray burst (sGRB) 130603B and another eight sGRB events during 2012-2015, observed by several multiwavelength facilities including the Gran Canarias Telescope 10.4 m telescope. Prompt emission high energy data of the events were obtained by INTEGRAL-SPI-ACS, Swift-BAT, and Fermi-GBM satellites. The prompt emission data by INTEGRAL in the energy range of 0.1-10 MeV for sGRB 130603B, sGRB 140606A, sGRB 140930B, sGRB 141212A, and sGRB 151228A do not show any signature of the extended emission or precursor activity and their spectral and temporal properties are similar to those seen in case of other short bursts. For sGRB 130603B, our new afterglow photometric data constrain the pre-jet-break temporal decay due to denser temporal coverage. For sGRB 130603B, the afterglow light curve, containing both our new and previously published photometric data is broadly consistent with the ISM afterglow model. Modeling of the host galaxies of sGRB 130603B and sGRB 141212A using the LePHARE software supports a scenario in which the environment of the burst is undergoing moderate star formation activity. From the inclusion of our late-time data for eight other sGRBs we are able to: place tight constraints on the non-detection of the afterglow, host galaxy, or any underlying 'kilonova' emission. Our late-time afterglow observations of the sGRB 170817A/GW170817 are also discussed and compared with the sub-set of sGRBs.© 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical SocietyAJCT acknowledges support from the Junta de Andalucia (Project P07-TIC-03094) and support from the Spanish Ministry Projects AYA2012-39727-C03-01 and 201571718R. This work has been supported by the Spanish Science Ministry 'Centro de Excelencia SeveroOchoa' Program under grant SEV-2017-0709. FEDER funds are acknowledged. E.S. acknowledges assistance from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) through project 112T224. We thank TUBITAK for a partial support in using T100 telescope with project number 10CT100-95. A.S.P acknowledges partial support grants RFBR 17-02-01388, 17-51-44018, and 1752-80139. E.D.M., A.A.V., and P.Yu.M. are grateful to RSCF grant 18-12-00522 for support. B.-B.Z. acknowledges support from National Thousand Young Talents program of China and National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFA0404204). R.Ya.I. is grateful for partial support by the grant RUSTAVELI/FR/379/6-300/14. R.S.R. acknowledges support from ASI (Italian Space Agency) through the Contract No. 2015-046R.0 and from European Union Horizon 2020 Programme under the AHEAD project (grant agreement No. 654215). SJ acknowledges the support of the Korea Basic Science Research Program through NRF-2015R1D1A4A01020961.Peer Reviewe

Global oceanic diazotroph database version 2 and elevated estimate of global oceanic N2_2 fixation

Marine diazotrophs convert dinitrogen (N2) gas into bioavailable nitrogen (N), supporting life in the global ocean. In 2012, the first version of the global oceanic diazotroph database (version 1) was published. Here, we present an updated version of the database (version 2), significantly increasing the number of in situ diazotrophic measurements from 13 565 to 55 286. Data points for N2 fixation rates, diazotrophic cell abundance, and nifH gene copy abundance have increased by 184 %, 86 %, and 809 %, respectively. Version 2 includes two new data sheets for the nifH gene copy abundance of non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs and cell-specific N2 fixation rates. The measurements of N2 fixation rates approximately follow a log-normal distribution in both version 1 and version 2. However, version 2 considerably extends both the left and right tails of the distribution. Consequently, when estimating global oceanic N2 fixation rates using the geometric means of different ocean basins, version 1 and version 2 yield similar rates (43–57 versus 45–63 Tg N yr−1; ranges based on one geometric standard error). In contrast, when using arithmetic means, version 2 suggests a significantly higher rate of 223±30 Tg N yr−1 (mean ± standard error; same hereafter) compared to version 1 (74±7 Tg N yr−1). Specifically, substantial rate increases are estimated for the South Pacific Ocean (88±23 versus 20±2 Tg N yr−1), primarily driven by measurements in the southwestern subtropics, and for the North Atlantic Ocean (40±9 versus 10±2 Tg N yr−1). Moreover, version 2 estimates the N2 fixation rate in the Indian Ocean to be 35±14 Tg N yr−1, which could not be estimated using version 1 due to limited data availability. Furthermore, a comparison of N2 fixation rates obtained through different measurement methods at the same months, locations, and depths reveals that the conventional 15N2 bubble method yields lower rates in 69 % cases compared to the new 15N2 dissolution method. This updated version of the database can facilitate future studies in marine ecology and biogeochemistry. The database is stored at the Figshare repository (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21677687; Shao et al., 2022)