Peace and Mind: Religion, Race, and Gender among Progressive Intellectuals and Activists

This paper explores how changing conceptions of religion, race, and gender at the beginning of the twentieth century promoted transnational anti-systemic movements and increased cooperation between progressive intellectuals and political activists. Using the cases of Bertrand Russell, George Bernard Shaw, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Jane Addams, and Sylvia Pankhurst, this paper chronicles and analyzes protest to the First World War and objection to the organization of the world-system

Reformulation initiative for partial replacement of saturated with unsaturated fats in dairy foods attenuates the increase in LDL cholesterol and improves flow-mediated dilatation compared with conventional dairy: the randomized, controlled REplacement of SaturatEd fat in dairy on Total cholesterol (RESET) study

Background Modifying dairy fat composition by increasing the MUFA content is a potential strategy to reduce dietary SFA intake for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in the population. Objectives To determine the effects of consuming SFA-reduced, MUFA-enriched (modified) dairy products, compared with conventional dairy products (control), on the fasting cholesterol profile (primary outcome), endothelial function assessed by flow-mediated dilatation (FMD; key secondary outcome), and other cardiometabolic risk markers. Methods A double-blind, randomized, controlled crossover 12-wk intervention was conducted. Participants with a 1.5-fold higher (moderate) CVD risk than the population mean replaced habitual dairy products with study products (milk, cheese, and butter) to achieve a high-fat, high-dairy isoenergetic daily dietary exchange [38% of total energy intake (%TE) from fat: control (dietary target: 19%TE SFA; 11%TE MUFA) and modified (16%TE SFA; 14%TE MUFA) diet]. Results Fifty-four participants (57.4% men; mean ± SEM age: 52 ± 3 y; BMI: 25.8 ± 0.5 kg/m2) completed the study. The modified diet attenuated the rise in fasting LDL cholesterol observed with the control diet (0.03 ± 0.06 mmol/L and 0.19 ± 0.05 mmol/L, respectively; P = 0.03). Relative to baseline, the %FMD response increased after the modified diet (0.35% ± 0.15%), whereas a decrease was observed after the control diet (−0.51% ± 0.15%; P< 0.0001). In addition, fasting plasma nitrite concentrations increased after the modified diet, yet decreased after the control diet (0.02 ± 0.01 μmol/L and −0.03 ± 0.02 μmol/L, respectively; P = 0.01). Conclusions In adults at moderate CVD risk, consumption of a high-fat diet containing SFA-reduced, MUFA-enriched dairy products for 12 wk showed beneficial effects on fasting LDL cholesterol and endothelial function compared with conventional dairy products. Our findings indicate that fatty acid modification of dairy products may have potential as a public health strategy aimed at CVD risk reduction. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02089035

The ecology of black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) on farmlands in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

M. Sc. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2014.Agricultural development is progressively being attributed as a cause of biodiversity loss. Despite this development, some species do successfully inhabit these transformed habitats and benefit from increased food and resource availability. Therefore it is important to understand how and why species persist in those altered landscapes to conserve remaining biodiversity. Black-backed jackals are an abundant mesopredator with an apparent success to these changing agricultural environments. An understanding of their ecology in agricultural areas can provide important ecological information on the species and elucidate possible reasons why this mesopredator is capable of adapting and surviving in agricultural lands. From 2013 to 2014, a study was conducted on the ecology of the black-backed jackal Canis mesomelas in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The study examined the home range, habitat use and diet of the species. In addition species characteristics and conflict of black-backed jackal from a landowner’s perspective were determined. It was found that rodents comprised the most consumed item of prey by black-backed jackal, followed by domestic livestock. There was a significant diversity of prey species in the diet indicating the opportunistic and generalist nature of the species. The home range movements of the species were relatively large compared to previous studies on the species and juveniles generally had larger home ranges than adult males and females. Habitat selection within home ranges indicated jackals preferred bushlands in winter and spring, and croplands in summer and autumn. Landowner’s reported regular predation on livestock by the species and suggest the increasing intensity of agriculture provides a greater food source of jackals. Some farmers used mitigation strategies in an attempt to prevent livestock losses, however, 32 % of farmers confessed to having poor disposal techniques for dead animals. This study provides important ecological information on black-backed jackal as a mesopredator species. Information on the spatial movement and diet of jackals in this study highlighted the variability in ecology of the species, providing information on the species’ persistence and success in agricultural areas. Furthermore, feedback from farmers emphasised the importance of having collaboration between farmers to control jackal predation and reduce human-wildlife conflict

Methane emissions from cattle: estimates from short-term measurements using a Green Feed system compared with measurements obtained using respiration chambers or sulphur hexafluoride tracer

The Green Feed (GF) system (C-Lock Inc., Rapid City, USA) is used to estimate total daily methane emissions of individual cattle using short-term measurements obtained over several days. Our objective was to compare measurements of methane emission by growing cattle obtained using the GF system with measurements using respiration chambers (RC)or sulphur hexafluoride tracer (SF6). It was hypothesised that estimates of methane emission for individual animals and treatments would be similar for GF compared to RC or SF6 techniques. In experiment 1, maize or grass silage-based diets were fed to four growing Holstein heifers, whilst for experiment 2, four different heifers were fed four haylage treatments. Both experiments were a 4 × 4 Latin square design with 33 day periods. Green Feed measurements of methane emission were obtained over 7 days (days 22–28) and com-pared to subsequent RC measurements over 4 days (days 29–33). For experiment 3, 12growing heifers rotationally grazed three swards for 26 days, with simultaneous GF and SF6 measurements over two 4 day measurement periods (days 15–19 and days 22–26).Overall methane emissions (g/day and g/kg dry matter intake [DMI]) measured using GF in experiments 1 (198 and 26.6, respectively) and 2 (208 and 27.8, respectively) were similar to averages obtained using RC (218 and 28.3, respectively for experiment 1; and 209 and 27.7, respectively, for experiment 2); but there was poor concordance between the two methods (0.1043 for experiments 1 and 2 combined). Overall, methane emissions measured using SF6 were higher (P<0.001) than GF during grazing (186 vs. 164 g/day), but there was significant (P<0.01) concordance between the two methods (0.6017). There were fewer methane measurements by GF under grazing conditions in experiment 3 (1.60/day) com-pared to indoor measurements in experiments 1 (2.11/day) and 2 (2.34/day). Significant treatment effects on methane emission measured using RC and SF6 were not evident for GF measurements, and the ranking for treatments and individual animals differed using the GF system. We conclude that under our conditions of use the GF system was unable to detectsignificant treatment and individual animal differences in methane emissions that were identified using both RC and SF6techniques, in part due to limited numbers and timing ofmeasurements obtained. Our data suggest that successful use of the GF system is reliant on the number and timing of measurements obtained relative to diurnal patterns of methane emission

Multi-wavelength imaging and spectral analysis of jet-like phenomena in a solar active region using IRIS and AIA

High-resolution observations of dynamic phenomena give insights into the properties and processes that govern the low solar atmosphere. We present an analysis of jet-like phenomena emanating from a penumbral footpoint in active region (AR) 12192 using imaging and spectral observations from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. These jets are associated with line-of-sight Doppler speeds of ±10–22 km s−1 and bright fronts that seem to move across the plane-of-sky at speeds of 23–130 km s−1. Such speeds are considerably higher than the expected sound speed in the chromosphere. The jets have signatures that are visible both in the cool and hot channels of IRIS and AIA. Each jet lasts on average 15 minutes and occurs 5–7 times over a period of 2 hr. Possible mechanisms to explain this phenomenon are suggested, the most likely of which involve p-mode or Alfvén wave shock trains impinging on the transition region and corona as a result of steepening photospheric wavefronts or gravity waves