Diagnosis for ecological intensification of maize-based smallholder farming systems in the Costa Chica, Mexico

Enhanced utilization of ecological processes for food and feed production as part of the notion of ecological intensification starts from location-specific knowledge of production constraints. A diagnostic systems approach which combined social-economic and production ecological methods at farm and field level was developed and applied to diagnose extent and causes of the perceived low productivity of maize-based smallholder systems in two communities of the Costa Chica in South West Mexico. Social-economic and production ecological surveys were applied and complemented with model-based calculations. The results demonstrated that current nutrient management of crops has promoted nutrition imbalances, resulting in K- and, less surprisingly N-limited production conditions, reflected in low yields of the major crops maize and roselle and low resource use efficiencies. Production on moderate to steep slopes was estimated to result in considerable losses of soil and organic matter. Poor crop production, lack of specific animal fodder production systems and strong dependence on animal grazing within communal areas limited recycling of nutrients through manure. In combination with low prices for the roselle cash crop, farmers are caught in a vicious cycle of cash shortage and resource decline. The production ecological findings complemented farmers opinions by providing more insight in background and extent of livelihood constraints. Changing fertilizer subsidies and rethinking animal fodder production as well as use of communal lands requires targeting both formal and informal governance structures. The methodology has broader applicability in smallholder systems in view of its low demand on capital intensive resource

Topsector Agro&Food : 'Agro&Food: De Nederlandse groeidiamant'

Innovatiecontract van de Topsector Agri&Food. De Agro & Food sector is de motor van de Nederlandse economie en de nummer 1 in de wereld. In totaal genereert de sector €48 miljard aan toegevoegde waarde. Dat is goed voor bijna 10% van de Nederlandse economie en werkgelegenheid. Nederland heeft de meest succesvolle en innovatieve Agro & Food-bedrijven, beschikt over kennisinstellingen van wereldklasse en staat aan de Europese top van private investeringen

Comparative Transvestism: An ethnographic approach to Judith Butler’s perspective

Las autoras de este artículo integramos un proyecto de investigación cuyo objetivo es analizar las articulaciones de subjetividad y agencia que se producen a partir del entramado de los clivajes étnico, de clase, de género y de edad. Partimos de entender que ninguno de estos clivajes opera separado de los demás sino que las subjetividades y las agencias emergen de una trama en la que los posicionamientos que visibilizan alguno de los clivajes implican otros que operan sin ser visibles. Tomamos como instrumentos conceptuales dos propuestas teóricas de Judith Butler. La primera de ellas tiene que ver con el debate en el campo de la teoría feminista por los supuestos etnocéntricos que subyacen al postulado de que la diferencia de género es anterior a otras diferencias y constituye una esfera autónoma de relaciones. La segunda es el uso de la metáfora del travestismo para analizar casos en los que la rearticulación de subjetividad falla en la materialización de la norma que es necesaria para completar la identificación. Esta metáfora es de gran productividad etnográfica en tanto constituye una parodia de la performatividad cotidiana. Con estos instrumentos teóricos analizaremos travestismos de género, clase, edad y etnicidad en Río Negro y Chubut.The authors of this article participate together in a research project that aims to analize articulations of subjectivity and agency that emerge from the intertwining of ethnic, class, gender and age cleavages. We understand that none of these cleavages operates on its own but within a framework in which the others are also part. Therefore, every social footing that explicitly draws on one of these cleavages necessarily implies the operation of those that are not visible. Our conceptual tools are two ideas that belong to Judith Butler. The first one is related to a debate in the field of feminist theory about the ethnocentric assumptions behind the assertion that gender difference is prior to other differences and constitutes an autonomous sphere of relations. The second one is the use of transvestism as a metaphore to analise those cases in which articulations of subjectivity fail in the materialization of the norm that is necessary to complete the identification process. With these theoretical tools we intend to analize transvestisms of gender, class, age and ethnicity in Río Negro and Chubut.Fil: Cabrapan Duarte, Melisa Gisel. Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. Sede Andina; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Kropff Causa, Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones En Diversidad Cultural y Procesos de Cambio; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro; ArgentinaFil: Sendyk, Sofía Ariadna. Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. Sede Andina; ArgentinaFil: Stella, Valentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones En Diversidad Cultural y Procesos de Cambio; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro; Argentin

Spatially resolved texture analysis of Napoleonic War era copper bolts

The spatial resolution achievable by a time-of-flight neutron strain scanner has been harnessed using a new data analysis methodology (NyRTex) to determine, nondestructively, the spatial variation of crystallographic texture in objects of cultural heritage. Previous studies on the crystallographic texture at the centre of three Napoleonic War era copper bolts, which demonstrated the value of this technique in differentiating between the different production processes of the different types of bolts, were extended to four copper bolts from the wrecks of HMS Impregnable (completed 1786), HMS Amethyst (1799), HMS Pomone (1805) and HMS Maeander (1840) along with a cylindrical `segment' of a further incomplete bolt from HMS Pomone. These included bolts with works stamps, allowing comparison with documentary accounts of the manufacturing processes used, and the results demonstrated unequivocally that bolts with a `Westwood and Collins' patent stamp were made using the Collins rather than the Westwood process. In some bolts there was a pronounced variation in texture across the cross section. In some cases this is consistent with what is known of the types of hot and cold working used, but the results from the latest study might also suggest that, even in the mature phase of this technology, some hand finishing was sometimes necessary. This examination of bolts from a wider range of dates is an important step in increasing our understanding of the introduction and evolution of copper fastenings in Royal Navy warships

Epitope-specific humoral responses to human cytomegalovirus glycoprotein-B vaccine with MF59 adjuvant in seropositive solid organ transplant recipients: anti-AD2 levels correlate with protection from viraemia

The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) virion envelope protein glycoprotein B (gB) is essential for viral entry and represents a major target for humoral responses following infection. Previously, a phase-2 placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted in solid organ transplant candidates demonstrated that vaccination with gB plus MF59 adjuvant significantly increased gB ELISA antibody levels whose titer correlated directly with protection against post-transplant viremia. The aim of the current study was to investigate in more detail this protective humoral response in vaccinated seropositive transplant recipients. We focussed on four key antigenic domains (AD) of gB; AD1, AD2, AD4 and AD5 measuring antibody levels in patient sera and correlating these with post-transplant HCMV viremia. Vaccination of seropositive patients significantly boosted pre-existing antibody levels against the immunodominant region AD1 as well as against AD2, AD4 and AD5. A decreased incidence of viremia correlated with higher antibody titers against AD2 but not with antibody titers against the other three ADs. Overall, these data support the hypothesis that antibodies against AD2 are a major component of the immune protection of seropositives seen following vaccination with gB/MF59 vaccine and identify a correlate of protective immunity in allograft patients

Statistical and dynamical properties of large cortical network models: insights into semantic memory and language

This thesis introduces several variants to the classical autoassociative memory model in order to capture different characteristics of large cortical networks, using semantic memory as a paradigmatic example in which to apply the results. Chapter 2 is devoted to the development of the sparse Potts model network as a simplification of a multi modular memory performing computations both at the local and the global level. If a network storing p global patterns has N local modules, each one active in S possible ways with a global sparseness a, and if each module is connected to cM other modules, the storage capacity scales like \u3b1c 61 pmax /cM 1d S 2 /a with logarithmic corrections. Chapter 3 further introduces adaptation and correlations among patterns, as a result of which a latching dynamics appears, consistent in the spontaneous hopping between global attractor states after an initial cue-guided retrieval, somehow similar to a free association process. The complexity of the latching series depends on the equilibrium between self-excitation of the local networks and global inhibition represented by the parameter U. Finally, Chapter 4 develops a consistent way to store and retrieve correlated patterns, which works as long as any statistical dependence between units can be neglected. The popularity of units must be introduced into the learning rule, as a result of which a new property of associative memories appears: the robustness of a memory is inverse to the information it conveys. As in some accounts of semantic memory deficits, random damage results in selective impairments, associated to the entropy measure Sf of each memory, since the minimum connectivity required to sustain its retrieval is, in optimal conditions, cM 1d pSf , and still proportional to pSf but possibly with a larger coefficient in the general case. Present in the entire thesis, but specially in this last Chapter, the conjecture stating that autoassociative memories are limited in the amount of information stored per synapse results consistent with the results