Contextual analysis in two villages of the Niger River Inner Delta

The Community-based Fish Culture in Seasonal Floodplains and Irrigation Systems (CBFC) project is a five year research project supported by the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), with the aim of increasing productivity of seasonally occurring water bodies through aquaculture. The project has been implemented in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Mali and Vietnam, where technical and institutional options for community based aquaculture have been tested. The project began in 2005 and was completed in March 2010. The objective of the study was to improve our knowledge of mare management and the livelihoods of two villages of the Niger Inner Delta, Severi and Komio. We wanted to understand mare access and fishery management and to highlight the different stakeholders involved in mare management as well as the different rules regulating access to the various mare resources. We implemented a series of Focus Group Discussion with the different socio-economic groups of the villages (fisherfolk, farmer-fishers, and herders) and a series of semi-structured interviews with key informants and stakeholders involved in mare management took place in July 2008.Fishing rights, River fisheries, Livelihoods

Preserve or retreat? Willingness-to-pay for Coastline Protection in New South Wales

Coastal erosion is a global and pervasive phenomenon that predicates a need for a strategic approach to the future management of coastal values and assets (both built and natural), should we invest in protective structures like seawalls that aim to preserve specific coastal features, or allow natural coastline retreat to preserve sandy beaches and other coastal ecosystems. Determining the most suitable management approach in a specific context requires a better understanding of the full suite of economic values the populations holds for coastal assets, including non-market values. In this study, we characterise New South Wales residents willingness to pay to maintain sandy beaches (width and length). We use an innovative application of a Latent Class Binary Logit model to deal with Yea-sayers and Nay-sayers, as well as revealing the latent heterogeneity among sample members. We find that 65% of the population would be willing to pay some amount of levy, dependent on the policy setting. In most cases, there is no effect of degree of beach deterioration characterised as loss of width and length of sandy beaches of between 5% and 100% on respondents willingness to pay for a management levy. This suggests that respondents who agreed to pay a management levy were motivated to preserve sandy beaches in their current state irrespective of the severity of sand loss likely to occur as a result of coastal erosion. Willingness to pay also varies according to beach type (amongst Iconic, Main, Bay and Surf beaches) a finding that can assist with spatial prioritisation of coastal management. Not recognizing the presence of nay-sayers in the data or recognizing them but eliminating them from the estimation will result in biased WTP results and, consequently, biased policy propositions by coastal managers.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1902.0241

A PI3K-and GTPase-independent Rac1-mTOR mechanism mediates MET-driven anchorage-independent cell growth but not migration

Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are often overexpressed or mutated in cancers and drive tumor growth and metastasis. In the current model of RTK signaling, including that of MET, downstream phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) mediates both cell proliferation and cell migration, whereas the small guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) Rac1 mediates cell migration. However, in cultured NIH3T3 and glioblastoma cells, we found that class I PI3K mediated oncogenic MET-induced cell migration but not anchorage-independent growth. In contrast, Rac1 regulated both processes in distinct ways. Downstream of PI3K, Rac1 mediated cell migration through its GTPase activity, whereas independently of PI3K, Rac1 mediated anchorage-independent growth in a GTPase-independent manner through an adaptor function. Through its RKR motif, Rac1 formed a complex with the kinase mTOR to promote its translocation to the plasma membrane, where its activity promoted anchorage-independent growth of the cell cultures. Inhibiting mTOR with rapamycin suppressed the growth of subcutaneous MET-mutant cell grafts in mice, including that of MET inhibitor-resistant cells. These findings reveal a GTPase-independent role for Rac1 in mediating a PI3K-independent MET-to-mTOR pathway and suggest alternative or combined strategies that might overcome resistance to RTK inhibitors in patients with cancer

Localized thinning for strain concentration in suspended germanium membranes and optical method for precise thickness measurement

We deposited Ge layers on (001) Si substrates by molecular beam epitaxy and used them to fabricate suspended membranes with high uniaxial tensile strain. We demonstrate a CMOS-compatible fabrication strategy to increase strain concentration and to eliminate the Ge buffer layer near the Ge/Si hetero-interface deposited at low temperature. This is achieved by a two-steps patterning and selective etching process. First, a bridge and neck shape is patterned in the Ge membrane, then the neck is thinned from both top and bottom sides. Uniaxial tensile strain values higher than 3% were measured by Raman scattering in a Ge membrane of 76 nm thickness. For the challenging thickness measurement on micrometer-size membranes suspended far away from the substrate a characterization method based on pump-and-probe reflectivity measurements was applied, using an asynchronous optical sampling technique.EC/FP7/628197/EU/Heat Propagation and Thermal Conductivity in Nanomaterials for Nanoscale Energy Management/HEATPRONAN

Extended Lower Limb Venous Ultrasound for the Diagnosis of Proximal and Distal Vein Thrombosis in Asymptomatic Patients after Total Hip Replacement

AbstractObjective. To assess the performance of extended lower limb venous ultrasound (US) for the diagnosis of asymptomatic deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and to estimate a 3-month DVT incidence on repeated US after total hip replacement.Design. Diagnostic performance study and prospective cohort study.Materials and methods. US was compared to phlebography in 70 consecutive patients and interobserver agreement was assessed in the last 48 patients at day 8. US was repeated in these 48 patients at day 13 and day 90.Results. Phlebography demonstrated a DVT in 18/70 (26%) patients, with five proximal and 13 distal and US in 23/70 (33%) patients, with eight proximal and 15 distal. Sensitivity and specificity of US with 95% CI were 94% (73–100) and 89% (76–96), respectively. Sensitivity in isolated distal vein thrombosis was 92% (67–99). The Kappa coefficient for agreement between observers was 0.84 (0.66–1.00). Follow-up showed a DVT in 15/48 (31%) patients on day 8, in 20/48 patients (42%) on day 13. DVT recurred in two patients during follow-up.Conclusions. The incidence of asymptomatic DVT is still significant despite prophylaxis but most DVTs remain distal and occur in the first 2 weeks. Extended US could replace phlebography for systematic screening in clinical trials using surrogate endpoints in view of its high accuracy and reliability

Determination of fatty acids ethyl esters in virgin olive oils: proposals to enhance the EU official method

Fatty acids ethyl esters (FAEEs) are markers for virgin olive oils obtained from olives of poor quality or not adequately stored before being processed. FAEEs can also be considered as indirect markers in detecting the illegal treatment of soft deodorization that can be applied to slightly defective olive oils, as they are difficult to be removed from the oils at the conditions reached during this technological process. The official FAEEs determination (EU Reg. 61/2011) suffers some drawbacks in terms of amount of solvents and long time of analysis, linked with the preparative procedure to isolate these compounds. The aim of this work is to study the application of an HPLC-UV as a rapid alternative approach to the traditional liquid chromatography applied in the preparative phase. After the set up of the most appropriate working conditions (eg. mobile phase, flow, injection volume), some validation parameters (eg. precision, accuracy, LOD and LOQ, recovery) have been evaluated, in order to check the effectiveness of the proposed method. Moreover, considering the GC-FID step, the use of a PTV (programmed temperature vaporizer) injector as an alternative of the on-column one was evaluated. This work is developed in the context of the project OLEUM \u201cAdvanced solutions for assuring authenticity and quality of olive oil at global scale\u201c, funded by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 Programme (2014\u20132020, GA no. 635690). The information expressed in this abstract reflects the authors\u2019 views; the EC is not liable for the information contained therein

A Cold Front in A3667: Hydrodynamics and Magnetic Field in the Intracluster Medium

This conference presentation discusses a Chandra observation of the cold front in Abell 3667. We first review our earlier results which include a measurement of the front velocity, M~1, using the ratio of exterior and interior gas pressures; observations of the hydrodynamic effects expected for a transonic front motion (weak bow shock and gas compression near the leading edge of the front); direct observation of the suppressed diffusion across the front, and estimate of the magnetic field strength near the front from suppression of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. The new results include using the 2-dimensional brightness distribution inside the cold front (a) to show that the front is stable and (b) to map the mass distribution in the gas cloud. This analysis confirms the existence of a dark matter subcluster traveling with the front. We also fix an algebraic error in our published calculations for the growth rate of the KH instability and discuss an additional effect which could stabilize the front against the small-scale perturbations. These updates only strengthen our conclusions regarding the importance of the magnetic fields for the front dynamics.Comment: Shortened version of the paper published in Astronomy Letters; based on talk at conference "High Energy Astrophysics 2001", Moscow, Dec 200

Community-based fish culture in seasonal floodplains and irrigation systems

The overall objective of the project was to enhance fish production from seasonally flooding areas and irrigation systems using a collective approach to fish culture. The project sought to examine the institutions necessary to support community-approaches to fish culture in a range of social, cultural and economic conditions, in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Vietnam and Mali. Technical designs for fish culture were also tested, building on successes achieved in earlier trials in Bangladesh, with an emphasis on adapting the model to develop locally appropriate culture systems. The project showed that the model is able to generate important benefits for communities in Bangladesh, China and Mali, and may have the potential to so in other countries. However, it was found that introducing fish culture into complex and dynamic institutional contexts, whereby open access waters lie over private property required a range of social, environmental and economic conditions to be in place for the adoption and continuance of the fish culture model