331 research outputs found

    What does it mean to do food justice?

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    \u27Food justice\u27 and \u27food sovereignty\u27 have become key words in food movement scholarship and activism. In the case of \u27food justice\u27, it seems the word is often substituted for work associated with projects typical of the alternative or local food movement. We argue that it is important for scholars and practitioners to be clear on how food justice differs from other efforts to seek an equitable food system. In the interests of ensuring accountability to socially just research and action, as well as mounting a tenable response to the \u27feed the world\u27 paradigm that often sweeps aside concerns with justice as distractions from the \u27real\u27 issues, scholars and practitioners need to be more clear on what it means to do food justice. In exploring that question, we identify four nodes around which food justice organizing appears to occur: trauma/inequity, exchange, land, and labor. This article sets the stage for a second one that follows, Notes on the practice of food justice in the U.S., where we discuss attempts to practice food justice

    Notes on the practice of food justice in the U.S.: Understanding and confronting trauma and inequity

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    In this article, we focus on one of the four nodes (trauma/inequity, exchange, land and labor) around which food justice organizing appears to occur: acknowledging and confronting historical, collective trauma and persistent race, gender, and class inequality. We apply what we have learned from our research in U.S. and Canadian agri-food systems to suggest working methods that might guide practitioners as they work toward food justice, and scholars as they seek to study it. In the interests of ensuring accountability to socially just research and action, we suggest that scholars and practitioners need to be more clear on what it means to practice food justice. Towards such clarity and accountability, we urge scholars and practitioners to collaboratively document how groups move toward food justice, what thwarts and what enables them

    Landscape ideology in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt Plan: Negotiating material landscapes and abstract ideals in the city\u27s countryside

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    We analyze the role of landscape ideology in the recent Ontario Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) Greenbelt Plan. Focusing on the “Protected Countryside,” the major land-use designation in the Plan that structures the Greenbelt framework, we explore tensions between abstract ideals of countryside used by policy makers to elicit support for the Plan and people\u27s lived experience of material landscapes of the peri-urban fringe. Approaching “countryside” from the combined perspectives of landscape studies and political ecology, we show how the abstract ideals used to build support for the protection of countryside in the high-level political arena are in tension with existing material landscapes as people experience them. When implementing the Greenbelt Plan, the abstract ideals have to be applied at the landscape level through negotiation with municipalities, property owners, and other interests. In addition to drawing upon more conventionally legitimate explanations for landscape protection based on environmental science and land-use planning principles, the designation of Protected Countryside and the strategies used to implement the Protected Countryside designation at the local level suggest a tentative commitment to recognizing landscape values and collaborative environmental management processes in policy-making. As with any such normative land-use plan, the success of the Greenbelt Plan hinges on the long-term agreement between planning agencies and diverse publics. We demonstrate the usefulness of approaching environmental management challenges at the urban–rural interface by bringing the perspectives of landscape studies and political ecology into implementation processes for land-use management strategies like the Greenbelt. We argue that public participants deserve legitimate collaborative roles in negotiating just and desirable land uses based on their experiences, and provide observations on ways to bring contested goals and tools for achieving them into reflexive negotiations about how landscapes are and should be produced

    Aerodynamic Shape Optimization of the STARC-ABL Concept for Minimal Inlet Distortion

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    The NASA single-aisle turboelectric aircraft with an aft boundary layer propulsor (STARC-ABL) concept utilizes a novel electrically driven aft fan that ingests the fuselage boundary-layer for increased propulsive efficiency. In this paper we examine how aerodynamic shaping of the fuselage diffuser and nacelle inlet can reduce the flow distortion at the aft fan. Adjoint-based aerodynamic shape optimization with the ARP1420 distortion metric objective is used to automatically determine the optimal shapes for minimal fan-face distortion. Single and multipoint optimizations are carried out for simplified body-duct and wing-body-duct configurations. These two configurations highlight the importance of including the wing downwash effects when designing the propulsor. The optimizations showed the body-duct configuration can obtain cruise distortion values of approximately 1% while the wing-body-duct configuration can obtain distortion values of just over 2%

    Calcitonin gene-related peptide stimulates proliferation of alveolar epithelial cells

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Alveolar epithelial cells are known as progenitor cells for the restoration from the damage in the lung. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) has been reported to play an important role in the proliferation of various types of epithelial and endothelial cells. We investigated the effects of CGRP on the proliferation of alveolar epithelial cells <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A549 cells were cultured in Dulbecco Modified Eagle Medium with 5% fatal bovin serum for 24 hours, then CGRP was added <it>in vitro</it>. The proliferation of DNA synthesis was measured using 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine, an analog of thymidine, by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.</p> <p>As one intracellular response to CGRP, we examined activation of p44/42- extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway by adding CGRP, using western blotting method.</p> <p>Recombinant adenovirus encoding nuclear-targeted-human ÎČ-CGRP (rhCGRP) was administered into Male Wister rat (n = 5, 10 weeks old) lungs by intratracheal instillation <it>in vivo</it>. 7 days after the administration of CGRP, rat lungs were harvested and histological findings and immunohistochemical staining of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were evaluated to examine cell proliferation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>In vitro </it>study, CGRP increased the proliferation of A549 cells in a dose and time dependent manner. CGRP8-37 (inhibitor of CGRP receptor) decreased CGRP induced proliferation of DNA synthesis. Phosphorylation of ERK pathway was observed within 15 minutes and peaked in one hour. U0126 (inhibitor of ERK pathway) decreased CGRP induced proliferation of DNA synthesis.<it>In vivo </it>study, histological examination of the lung indicated proliferation of alveolar epithelial cells in the rhCGRP-treated group and the nuclei of alveolar epithelial cells were positive for PCNA immunostaining.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this study, we conclude that CGRP stimulates proliferation of human alveolar epithelial cells <it>in vivo </it>and <it>in vitro</it>.</p
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