Three sides to every story: Gender perspectives in energy transition pathways in Canada, Kenya and Spain

Transitions toward a low-carbon future are not only technical and economical, but also deeply social and gendered. The gendered nature of energy transitions is often implicit and unexplored. As a corrective, this paper explores energy pathways by applying concepts from innovations and gender studies. We examine gender perspectives and niche energy innovations which could disrupt the regime. The regime represents the mainstream pathway that includes the dominant gender perspective and energy system. We explore different gender perspectives of energy transition pathways by applying an Alternative Pathways framework that includes: (1) on-stream pathways that exist within the mainstream pathway to promote equal opportunities for women and men, as well as niches for energy innovations without challenging the high-carbon energy regime; (2) off-stream pathways that depart from the mainstream and promote differences across different genders while creating niches outside the energy regime; and (3) transformative pathways that are fundamentally different from the previous mainstream and includes all gender perspectives in a new energy regime. Applying this framing, in Canada, we explored Indigenous perspectives in the oil sands sector; in Kenya, we studied largescale renewable energy impacting Indigneous communities; in Spain, we evaluate the movement away from fossil fuels and towards renewable technologies. The framework helped to identify that mainstream pathways represented the dominant male perspective while woman's perspective were largely left out. Such absence generate energy pathways that are disconnected from local realities, lack public buy-in and slow-down a sustainable energy transition. © 2020 The Author(s)We would like to acknowledge the feedback of the two anonymous reviews as well as the TRANSrisk consortium members. We would also like to acknowledge the Maria de Maeztu excellence accreditation MDM-2017-0714 of BC3

Implications of Space-Time foam for Entanglement Correlations of Neutral Kaons

The role of $CPT$ invariance and consequences for bipartite entanglement of neutral (K) mesons are discussed. A relaxation of $CPT$ leads to a modification of the entanglement which is known as the $\omega$ effect. The relaxation of assumptions required to prove the $CPT$ theorem are examined within the context of models of space-time foam. It is shown that the evasion of the EPR type entanglement implied by $CPT$ (which is connected with spin statistics) is rather elusive. Relaxation of locality (through non-commutative geometry) or the introduction of decoherence by themselves do not lead to a destruction of the entanglement. So far we find only one model which is based on non-critical strings and D-particle capture and recoil that leads to a stochastic contribution to the space-time metric and consequent change in the neutral meson bipartite entanglement. The lack of an omega effect is demonstrated for a class of models based on thermal like baths which are generally considered as generic models of decoherence

Decoherence and CPT Violation in a Stringy Model of Space-Time Foam

I discuss a model inspired from the string/brane framework, in which our Universe is represented as a three brane, propagating in a bulk space time punctured by D0-brane (D-particle) defects. As the D3-brane world moves in the bulk, the D-particles cross it, and from an effective observer on D3 the situation looks like a ``space-time foam'' with the defects ``flashing'' on and off (``D-particle foam''). The open strings, with their ends attached on the brane, which represent matter in this scenario, can interact with the D-particles on the D3-brane universe in a topologically non-trivial manner, involving splitting and capture of the strings by the D0-brane defects. Such processes are described by logarithmic conformal field theories on the world-sheet. Physically, they result in effective decoherence of the string matter on the D3 brane, and as a result, of CPT Violation, but of a type that implies an ill-defined nature of the effective CPT operator. Due to electric charge conservation, only electrically neutral (string) matter can exhibit such interactions with the D-particle foam. This may have unique, experimentally detectable, consequences for electrically-neutral entangled quantum matter states on the brane world, in particular the modification of the pertinent EPR Correlation of neutral mesons in a meson factory.Comment: 41 pages Latex, five eps figures incorporated. Uses special macro

Identification of multiple risk loci and regulatory mechanisms influencing susceptibility to multiple myeloma

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have transformed our understanding of susceptibility to multiple myeloma (MM), but much of the heritability remains unexplained. We report a new GWAS, a meta-analysis with previous GWAS and a replication series, totalling 9974 MM cases and 247,556 controls of European ancestry. Collectively, these data provide evidence for six new MM risk loci, bringing the total number to 23. Integration of information from gene expression, epigenetic profiling and in situ Hi-C data for the 23 risk loci implicate disruption of developmental transcriptional regulators as a basis of MM susceptibility, compatible with altered B-cell differentiation as a key mechanism. Dysregulation of autophagy/apoptosis and cell cycle signalling feature as recurrently perturbed pathways. Our findings provide further insight

Effects of genetic type and protein levels on growth of swine

A total of 1,588 pigs representing six genetic lines were included in this study. These lines were selected to represent a wide range of biological types for appetite, rate and composition of gain, and meat quality traits. Each line was fed four different diets differing in lysine content. Barrows and gilts were used in the experiment, and pigs were randomly assigned to come off test at one of three weights (113.6, 131.8, or 150 kg). Rates of increase in weight, backfat thickness, and longissimus muscle area were essentially linear. Genetic type and diet influenced (P \u3c .05) rates of change in weight, backfat thickness, and longissimus muscle area and 10th rib fat depth, carcass longissimus muscle area, and dressing percentage. Genetic type × diet interactions were significant for weight change and 10th rib fat. As off-test-weight class increased fat and longissimus muscle area increased in linear fashion. In general, interactions associated with diet resulted from feeding the diet lowest in lysine. There was little evidence of genetic type × diet interactions. If those interactions that tested significant are real, they are a result of extremes in both genetic type (high fatness) and lysine level (low). Slaughtering pigs at heavier weights results in no change in rate of gain over the feeding period and linear increases in longissimus muscle area and backfat thickness

Are plant growth-form-based classifications useful in predicting northern ecosystem carbon cycling feedbacks to climate change?

1. Plant species affect ecosystem carbon uptake via biomass production and carbon release via decomposition processes. Differences in their responses to climate change and effects on ecosystem carbon cycling processes may thus feedback to the atmospheric carbon balance and the climate at a global scale. Hierarchical species classifications based on plant growth forms are widely used in cold, northern biomes to generalize and predict these differences. This review investigates the usefulness of broad (vascular, non-vascular), intermediate (woody, non-woody) and narrow (evergreen shrubs, deciduous shrubs, graminoids, forbs) plant growth-form-based groups in these biomes for predicting plant responses to climate change and effects on the main processes of the full carbon cycle by looking at the similarity of species within growth-form groups and the consistency of differences among groups under changing environmental conditions. 2. Production responses to climate change differ between broad growth-form groups, but their opposite responses do not imply that the responses of non-vascular plants are consistently negative. Within vascular growth forms, production responses to climate change are not always similar among species under identical conditions, and average differences among narrow vascular growth forms are usually small. Moreover, differences in production responses among growth forms strongly depend upon the duration of the study, the region and the ecosystem type. 3. Species within narrow growth forms show a high similarity for a range of leaf litter chemistry variables and differences among narrow growth forms are often large and consistent. However, differences in leaf litter decomposability are large between broad growth-form groups, but small and environment-dependent among important narrow vascular growth forms. Litter feedback effects to plant production vary among narrow vascular growth forms, but the differences strongly depend on the study duration. Data on the climate dependence of growth-form differences regarding this aspect of the carbon cycle are currently lacking. 4. Synthesis: Overall, the usefulness of growth-form-based groups clearly differs between carbon cycling processes. Different aggregation levels are therefore needed for different processes. For most processes there is evidence that the differences among growth forms depend on environmental conditions, which hampers their use for generalizations and modelling. Future studies should therefore explicitly test for differences among growth-form groups and aim to unravel the dependence of growth-form differences on environmental conditions. © 2007 The Author