Organic Farming, Climate Change Mitigation and Beyond. Reducing the environmental impacts of eu agriculture

Sustainably feeding the growing world population and preventing dangerous climate change are two of the major challenges facing society today. While there is a growing understanding of the complexity of the links between these challenges and of the global degradation of the environment, the contribution of food and farming to climate change mitigation is all too often looked at from the single perspective of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per hectare or kilogram of product. This narrow view fails to account for the vast array of ways that food and farming contribute to climate change, as well as the destructive effects of industrial agriculture on soils, biodiversity and the natural resources on which we depend for food production. The impact of agriculture practices, food wastage, and diets must all be evaluated if we are to understand how food and farming can positively contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, while simultaneously providing food security. The issue about what is produced to meet human needs, what is produced for intermediate production purposes (e.g. livestock feed) and what is wasted between the field and the kitchen, needs to be part of the discussion. To provide healthy food in a sustainable way, we need to transform the food & farming system and transition to agriculture and food production that can adapt to unavoidable climate change, preserve our natural heritage such as biodiversity, sustains the quality of our soils, and improve the livelihood of farmers. This report aims to provide a comprehensive discussion of these varied, yet interlinked, issues

Atmospheric Acetaldehyde: Importance of Air-Sea Exchange and a Missing Source in the Remote Troposphere.

We report airborne measurements of acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) during the first and second deployments of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom). The budget of CH3CHO is examined using the Community Atmospheric Model with chemistry (CAM-chem), with a newly-developed online air-sea exchange module. The upper limit of the global ocean net emission of CH3CHO is estimated to be 34 Tg a-1 (42 Tg a-1 if considering bubble-mediated transfer), and the ocean impacts on tropospheric CH3CHO are mostly confined to the marine boundary layer. Our analysis suggests that there is an unaccounted CH3CHO source in the remote troposphere and that organic aerosols can only provide a fraction of this missing source. We propose that peroxyacetic acid (PAA) is an ideal indicator of the rapid CH3CHO production in the remote troposphere. The higher-than-expected CH3CHO measurements represent a missing sink of hydroxyl radicals (and halogen radical) in current chemistry-climate models

Hypoxia-induced Autophagy Drives Colorectal Cancer Initiation and Progression by Activating the PRKC/PKC-EZR (Ezrin) Pathway

In solid tumors, cancer stem cells (CSCs) or tumor-initiating cells (TICs) are often found in hypoxic niches. Nevertheless, the influence of hypoxia on TICs is poorly understood. Using previously established, TIC-enriched patient-derived colorectal cancer (CRC) cultures, we show that hypoxia increases the self-renewal capacity of TICs while inducing proliferation arrest in their more differentiated counterpart cultures. Gene expression data revealed macroautophagy/autophagy as one of the major pathways induced by hypoxia in TICs. Interestingly, hypoxia-induced autophagy was found to induce phosphorylation of EZR (ezrin) at Thr567 residue, which could be reversed by knocking down ATG5, BNIP3, BNIP3L, or BECN1. Furthermore, we identified PRKCA/PKCα as a potential kinase involved in hypoxia-induced autophagy-mediated TIC self-renewal. Genetic targeting of autophagy or pharmacological inhibition of PRKC/PKC and EZR resulted in decreased tumor-initiating potential of TICs. In addition, we observed significantly reduced in vivo tumor initiation and growth after a stable knockdown of ATG5. Analysis of human CRC samples showed that p-EZR is often present in TICs located in the hypoxic and autophagic regions of the tumor. Altogether, our results establish the hypoxia-autophagy-PKC-EZR signaling axis as a novel regulatory mechanism of TIC self-renewal and CRC progression. Autophagy inhibition might thus represent a promising therapeutic strategy for cancer patients

Ozone depletion due to dust release of iodine in the free troposphere

Iodine is an atmospheric trace element emitted from oceans that efficiently destroys ozone (O3). Low O3 in airborne dust layers is frequently observed but poorly understood. We show that dust is a source of gas-phase iodine, indicated by aircraft observations of iodine monoxide (IO) radicals inside lofted dust layers from the Atacama and Sechura Deserts that are up to a factor of 10 enhanced over background. Gas-phase iodine photochemistry, commensurate with observed IO, is needed to explain the low O3 inside these dust layers (below 15 ppbv; up to 75% depleted). The added dust iodine can explain decreases in O3 of 8% regionally and affects surface air quality. Our data suggest that iodate reduction to form volatile iodine species is a missing process in the geochemical iodine cycle and presents an unrecognized aeolian source of iodine. Atmospheric iodine has tripled since 1950 and affects ozone layer recovery and particle formation.Fil: Koenig, Theodore K.. State University of Colorado at Boulder; Estados Unidos. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Volkamer, Rainer. State University of Colorado at Boulder; Estados Unidos. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Apel, Eric C.. National Center for Atmospheric Research; Estados UnidosFil: Bresch, James F.. National Center for Atmospheric Research; Estados UnidosFil: Cuevas, Carlos A.. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Química Física; EspañaFil: Dix, Barbara. State University of Colorado at Boulder; Estados Unidos. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Eloranta, Edwin W.. University of Wisconsin; Estados UnidosFil: Fernandez, Rafael Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas. - Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas; ArgentinaFil: Hall, Samuel R.. National Center for Atmospheric Research; Estados UnidosFil: Hornbrook, Rebecca S.. National Center for Atmospheric Research; Estados UnidosFil: Pierce, R. Bradley. National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service; Estados UnidosFil: Reeves, J. Michael. National Center for Atmospheric Research; Estados UnidosFil: Saiz López, Alfonso. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Química Física; EspañaFil: Ullmann, Kirk. National Center for Atmospheric Research; Estados Unido

Transoral resection of pharyngeal cancer: Summary of a National Cancer Institute Head and Neck Cancer Steering Committee Clinical Trials Planning Meeting, November 6–7, 2011, Arlington, Virginia

Recent advances now permit resection of many pharyngeal tumors through the open mouth, an approach that can greatly reduce the morbidity of surgical exposure. These transoral techniques are being rapidly adopted by the surgical community and hold considerable promise. On November 6–7, 2011, the National Cancer Institute sponsored a Clinical Trials Planning Meeting to address how to further investigate the use of transoral surgery, both in the good prognosis human papillomavirus (HPV)–initiated oropharyngeal cancers, and in those with HPV‐unrelated disease. The proceedings of this meeting are summarized. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2012Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94490/1/23136_ftp.pd

Identifying Examinees Who Possess Distinct and Reliable Subscores When Added Value is Lacking for the Total Sample

Research has demonstrated that although subdomain information may provide no added value beyond the total score, in some contexts such information is of utility to particular demographic subgroups (Sinharay & Haberman, 2014). However, it is argued that the utility of reporting subscores for an individual should not be based on one’s manifest characteristics (e.g., gender or ethnicity), but rather on individual needs for diagnostic information, which is driven by multidimensionality in subdomain scores. To improve the validity of diagnostic information, this study proposed the use of Mahalanobis Distance and HT indices to assess whether an individual’s data significantly departs from unidimensionality. Those examinees that were found to differ significantly were then assessed separately for subscore added value via Haberman’s (2008) procedure. To this end, simulation analyses were conducted to evaluate Type I error, power, and recovery of subscore added value classifications for various levels of subdomain test lengths, subdomain inter-correlations, and proportions of multidimensionality in the total sample. Results demonstrated that the HT index possessed around 100% power across all conditions, while maintaining Type I error below 5%, which led to nearly perfect recovery of subscore added value classifications. In contrast, the power rates for Mahalanobis Distance were much lower ranging from 13% to 61% with Type I errors maintained at the nominal level of 5%. Although the power rates were below the desired criterion of 80%, the cases identified as aberrant using this method were found to have greater variability between subdomain scores, increased reliability, and lower observed subdomain correlations when compared to the generated data. As a result, outlier cases were found to have subscore added value for nearly 100% of cases across conditions even when the generated multidimensional data did not possess subscore added value. These results were cross-validated using a large-scale high-stakes test in which the Mahalanobis Distance measure was found to identify 6.57% of 8,803 test-takers that possessed subscores with added-value who otherwise would have been masked by the unidimensionality of the total sample. Overall, this study suggests that the Mahalanobis Distance measure shows some promise in identifying examinees with multidimensional score profiles

Missing OH reactivity in the global marine boundary layer

The hydroxyl radical (OH) reacts with thousands of chemical species in the atmosphere, initiating their removal and the chemical reaction sequences that produce ozone, secondary aerosols, and gas-phase acids. OH reactivity, which is the inverse of OH lifetime, influences the OH abundance and the ability of OH to cleanse the atmosphere. The NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) campaign used instruments on the NASA DC-8 aircraft to measure OH reactivity and more than 100 trace chemical species. ATom presented a unique opportunity to test the completeness of the OH reactivity calculated from the chemical species measurements by comparing it to the measured OH reactivity over two oceans across four seasons. Although the calculated OH reactivity was below the limit of detection for the ATom instrument used to measure OH reactivity throughout much of the free troposphere, the instrument was able to measure the OH reactivity in and just above the marine boundary layer. The mean measured value of OH reactivity in the marine boundary layer across all latitudes and all ATom deployments was 1.9 s⁻¹, which is 0.5 s⁻¹ larger than the mean calculated OH reactivity. The missing OH reactivity, the difference between the measured and calculated OH reactivity, varied between 0 and 3.5 s⁻¹, with the highest values over the Northern Hemisphere Pacific Ocean. Correlations of missing OH reactivity with formaldehyde, dimethyl sulfide, butanal, and sea surface temperature suggest the presence of unmeasured or unknown volatile organic compounds or oxygenated volatile organic compounds associated with ocean emissions

Constraining remote oxidation capacity with ATom observations

The global oxidation capacity, defined as the tropospheric mean concentration of the hydroxyl radical (OH), controls the lifetime of reactive trace gases in the atmosphere such as methane and carbon monoxide (CO). Models tend to underestimate the methane lifetime and CO concentrations throughout the troposphere, which is consistent with excessive OH. Approximately half of the oxidation of methane and non-methane volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is thought to occur over the oceans where oxidant chemistry has received little validation due to a lack of observational constraints. We use observations from the first two deployments of the NASA ATom aircraft campaign during July-August 2016 and January-February 2017 to evaluate the oxidation capacity over the remote oceans and its representation by the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model. The model successfully simulates the magnitude and vertical profile of remote OH within the measurement uncertainties. Comparisons against the drivers of OH production (water vapor, ozone, and NOy concentrations, ozone photolysis frequencies) also show minimal bias, with the exception of wintertime NOy. The severe model overestimate of NOy during this period may indicate insufficient wet scavenging and/or missing loss on sea-salt aerosols. Large uncertainties in these processes require further study to improve simulated NOy partitioning and removal in the troposphere, but preliminary tests suggest that their overall impact could marginally reduce the model bias in tropospheric OH. During the ATom-1 deployment, OH reactivity (OHR) below 3 km is significantly enhanced, and this is not captured by the sum of its measured components (cOHRobs) or by the model (cOHRmod). This enhancement could suggest missing reactive VOCs but cannot be explained by a comprehensive simulation of both biotic and abiotic ocean sources of VOCs. Additional sources of VOC reactivity in this region are difficult to reconcile with the full suite of ATom measurement constraints. The model generally reproduces the magnitude and seasonality of cOHRobs but underestimates the contribution of oxygenated VOCs, mainly acetaldehyde, which is severely underestimated throughout the troposphere despite its calculated lifetime of less than a day. Missing model acetaldehyde in previous studies was attributed to measurement uncertainties that have been largely resolved. Observations of peroxyacetic acid (PAA) provide new support for remote levels of acetaldehyde. The underestimate in both model acetaldehyde and PAA is present throughout the year in both hemispheres and peaks during Northern Hemisphere summer. The addition of ocean sources of VOCs in the model increases cOHRmod by 3 % to 9 % and improves model-measurement agreement for acetaldehyde, particularly in winter, but cannot resolve the model summertime bias. Doing so would require 100 Tg yr-1 of a longlived unknown precursor throughout the year with significant additional emissions in the Northern Hemisphere summer. Improving the model bias for remote acetaldehyde and PAA is unlikely to fully resolve previously reported model global biases in OH and methane lifetime, suggesting that future work should examine the sources and sinks of OH over land

Global Atmospheric Budget of Acetone: Air‐Sea Exchange and the Contribution to Hydroxyl Radicals

Acetone is one of the most abundant oxygenated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere. The oceans impose a strong control on atmospheric acetone, yet the oceanic fluxes of acetone remain poorly constrained. In this work, the global budget of acetone is evaluated using two global models: CAM‐chem and GEOS‐Chem. CAM‐chem uses an online air‐sea exchange framework to calculate the bidirectional oceanic acetone fluxes, which is coupled to a data‐oriented machine‐learning approach. The machine‐learning algorithm is trained using a global suite of seawater acetone measurements. GEOS‐Chem uses a fixed surface seawater concentration of acetone to calculate the oceanic fluxes. Both model simulations are compared to airborne observations from a recent global‐scale, multiseasonal campaign, the NASA Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom). We find that both CAM‐chem and GEOS‐Chem capture the measured acetone vertical distributions in the remote atmosphere reasonably well. The combined observational and modeling analysis suggests that (i) the ocean strongly regulates the atmospheric budget of acetone. The tropical and subtropical oceans are mostly a net source of acetone, while the high‐latitude oceans are a net sink. (ii) CMIP6 anthropogenic emission inventory may underestimate acetone and/or its precursors in the Northern Hemisphere. (iii) The MEGAN biogenic emissions model may overestimate acetone and/or its precursors, and/or the biogenic oxidation mechanisms may overestimate the acetone yields. (iv) The models consistently overestimate acetone in the upper troposphere‐lower stratosphere over the Southern Ocean in austral winter. (v) Acetone contributes up to 30–40% of hydroxyl radical production in the tropical upper troposphere/lower stratosphere