Green grabbing and the dynamics of local-level engagement with neoliberalization in Tanzania’s wildlife management areas

This paper analyzes the politics and struggles ongoing within wildlife management areas (WMAs) in Tanzania to discuss the dynamics of neoliberalization of the wildlife sector. We discuss neoliberalization as a new political-economic context within which the ongoing politics of natural resource management are played out, and focus on green grabbing as an expression of these politics. We discuss how local-level actors are engaged in these processes, often in strategic ways, to negotiate their roles within WMAs and address green grabbing by the state. Secondly, we discuss an example of the politics of land control and local-level actors’ enactment of accumulation by dispossession within a WMA.The arguments in this paper have benefited greatly from the many discussions that have taken place within the Political Ecology Research Group at the University of Cambridge. The authors would also like to thank Chris Sandbrook for useful comments on an earlier draft and three anonymous reviewers for their comments and recommendations, which have strengthened the arguments considerably. The map was reproduced by the Cartographic Unit, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge.This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Peasant Studies on 3 November 2014, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03066150.2014.967686

The increased expression of fatty acid-binding protein 9 in prostate cancer and its prognostic significance

In contrast to numerous studies conducted to investigate the crucial role of fatty acid binding protein 5 (FABP5) in prostate cancer, investigations on the possible involvement of other FABPs are rare. Here we first measured the mRNA levels of 10 FABPs in benign and malignant prostate cell lines and identified the differentially expressed FABP6 and FABP9 mRNAs whose levels in all malignant cell lines were higher than those in the benign cells. Thereafter we assessed the expression status of FABP6 and FABP9 in both prostate cell lines and in human tissues. FABP6 protein was overexpressed only in 1 of the 5 malignant cell lines and its immunostaining intensities were not significantly different between benign and malignant prostate tissues. In contrast, FABP9 protein was highly expressed in highly malignant cell lines PC-3 and PC3-M, but its level in the benign PNT-2 and other malignant cell lines was not detectable. When analysed in an archival set of human prostate tissues, immunohistochemical staining intensity for FABP9 was significantly higher in carcinomas than in benign cases and the increase in FABP9 was significantly correlated with reduced patient survival times. Moreover, the increased level of staining for FABP9 was significantly associated with the increased joint Gleason scores (GS) and androgen receptor index (AR). Suppression of FABP9 expression in highly malignant PC3-M cells inhibited their invasive potential. Our results suggest that FABP9 is a valuable prognostic marker to predict the outcomes of prostate cancer patients, perhaps by playing an important role in prostate cancer cell invasion

Brachial and Cerebrovascular Functions Are Enhanced in Postmenopausal Women after Ingestion of Chocolate with a High Concentration of Cocoa.

Background: Cocoa contains polyphenols that are thought to be beneficial for vascular health.Objective: We assessed the impact of chocolate containing distinct concentrations of cocoa on cerebrovascular function and cognition.Methods: Using a counterbalanced within-subject design, we compared the acute impact of consumption of energy-matched chocolate containing 80%, 35%, and 0% single-origin cacao on vascular endothelial function, cognition, and cerebrovascular function in 12 healthy postmenopausal women (mean ± SD age: 57.3 ± 5.3 y). Participants attended a familiarization session, followed by 3 experimental trials, each separated by 1 wk. Outcome measures included cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFv) responses, recorded before and during completion of a computerized cognitive assessment battery (CogState); brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD); and hemodynamic responses (heart rate and blood pressure).Results: When CBFv data before and after chocolate intake were compared between conditions through the use of 2-factor ANOVA, an interaction effect (P = 0.003) and main effects for chocolate (P = 0.043) and time (P = 0.001) were evident. Post hoc analysis revealed that both milk chocolate (MC; 35% cocoa; P = 0.02) and dark chocolate (DC; 80% cocoa; P = 0.003) induced significantly lower cerebral blood flow responses during the cognitive tasks, after normalizing for changes in arterial pressure. DC consumption also increased brachial FMD compared with the baseline value before chocolate consumption (P = 0.002), whereas MC and white chocolate (0% cocoa) caused no change (P-interaction between conditions = 0.034).Conclusions: Consumption of chocolate containing high concentrations of cocoa enhanced vascular endothelial function, which was reflected by improvements in FMD. Cognitive function outcomes did not differ between conditions; however, cerebral blood flow responses during these cognitive tasks were lower in those consuming MC and DC. These findings suggest that chocolate containing high concentrations of cocoa may modify the relation between cerebral metabolism and blood flow responses in postmenopausal women. This trial was registered at www.ANZCTR.orgau as ACTRN12616000990426

Lyman Alpha Forest towards B2 1225+317

We present observations of the Lyman alpha forest towards B2 1225+317 taken at a resolution of 18 km/s. A clean sample of Lyman alpha forest lines is extracted after a careful profile fitting analysis and removal of absorption lines of heavy elements. The sample is analyzed for statistical properties. Eighty percent of the column densities are < 10^{14} cm^{-2}. A single power law is inconsistent with the column density distribution and a steepening/break in the distribution is indicated. The average velocity dispersion parameter is 29.4 km/s. We find 3 sigma evidence for a correlation between column density and the velocity dispersion parameter. The correlation, however, is mainly due to narrow lines and weakens to 1.2 sigma if lines with velocity dispersion parameter smaller than 20 km/s are excluded. An excess of line pairs with velocity separation $\le$ 100 km/s over the expected number is found.Comment: latex(mn.sty), 6 figures (available on request from [email protected] or [email protected]), to appear in MNRA

The role of mentorship in protege performance

The role of mentorship on protege performance is a matter of importance to academic, business, and governmental organizations. While the benefits of mentorship for proteges, mentors and their organizations are apparent, the extent to which proteges mimic their mentors' career choices and acquire their mentorship skills is unclear. Here, we investigate one aspect of mentor emulation by studying mentorship fecundity---the number of proteges a mentor trains---with data from the Mathematics Genealogy Project, which tracks the mentorship record of thousands of mathematicians over several centuries. We demonstrate that fecundity among academic mathematicians is correlated with other measures of academic success. We also find that the average fecundity of mentors remains stable over 60 years of recorded mentorship. We further uncover three significant correlations in mentorship fecundity. First, mentors with small mentorship fecundity train proteges that go on to have a 37% larger than expected mentorship fecundity. Second, in the first third of their career, mentors with large fecundity train proteges that go on to have a 29% larger than expected fecundity. Finally, in the last third of their career, mentors with large fecundity train proteges that go on to have a 31% smaller than expected fecundity.Comment: 23 pages double-spaced, 4 figure

D-brane anomaly inflow revisited

Axial and gravitational anomaly of field theories, when embedded in string theory, must be accompanied by canceling inflow. We give a self-contained overview for various world-volume theories, and clarify the role of smeared magnetic sources in I-brane/D-brane cases. The proper anomaly descent of the source, as demanded by regularity of RR field strengths H's, turns out to be an essential ingredient. We show how this allows correct inflow to be generated for all such theories, including self-dual cases, and also that the mechanism is now insensitive to the choice between the two related but inequivalent forms of D-brane Chern-Simons couplings. In particular, SO(6)_R axial anomaly of d=4 maximal SYM is canceled by the inflow onto D3-branes via the standard minimal coupling to C_4. We also propose how, for the anomaly cancelation, the four types of Orientifold planes should be coupled to the spacetime curvatures, of which conflicting claims existed previously.Comment: 41 pages, references updated; version to appear in JHE

Identifying Vessel Branching from Fluid Stresses on Microscopic Robots

Objects moving in fluids experience patterns of stress on their surfaces determined by the geometry of nearby boundaries. Flows at low Reynolds number, as occur in microscopic vessels such as capillaries in biological tissues, have relatively simple relations between stresses and nearby vessel geometry. Using these relations, this paper shows how a microscopic robot moving with such flows can use changes in stress on its surface to identify when it encounters vessel branches.Comment: Version 2 has minor clarification

Forecasting the combined effects of climate and land use change on Mexican bats

Aim: Climate and land use change are among the most important threatening processes driving biodiversity loss, especially in the tropics. Although the potential impacts of each threat have been widely studied in isolation, few studies have assessed the impacts of climate and land cover change in combination. Here, we evaluate the exposure of a large mammalian clade, bats, to multiple scenarios of environmental change and dispersal to understand potential consequences for biodiversity conservation. / Location: Mexico. / Methods: We used ensemble species distribution models to forecast changes in environmental suitability for 130 bat species that occur in Mexico by 2050s under four dispersal assumptions and four combined climate and land use change scenarios. We identified regions with the strongest projected impacts for each scenario and assessed the overlap across scenarios. / Results: The combined effects of climate and land use change will cause an average reduction in environmental suitability for 51% of the species across their range, regardless of scenario. Overall, species show a mean decrease in environmental suitability in at least 46% of their current range in all scenarios of change and dispersal. Climate scenarios had a higher impact on species environmental suitability than land use scenarios. There was a spatial overlap of 43% across the four environmental change scenarios for the regions projected to have the strongest impacts. / Main conclusions: Combined effects of future environmental change may result in substantial declines in environmental suitability for Mexican bats even under optimistic scenarios. This study highlights the vulnerability of megadiverse regions and an indicator taxon to human disturbance. The consideration of combined threats can make an important difference in how we react to changes to conserve our biodiversity as they pose different challenges