Bioversity International’s contributions to the implementation of article 6 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

In the last 20 years, Bioversity International has coordinated or has been involved in a number of initiatives, projects and activities that contribute to the implementation of Article 6 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). In this note, we summarize how Bioversity International’s work has contributed to each of the measures indicated in Article 6.2 from a) to g) and present examples of projects that are aligned with these measures. This summary was prepared as a contribution to the Third Meeting of the Ad Hoc Technical Committee on Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources, Vienna, October 2016

Implications of seed policies for on-farm agro-biodiversity in Ethiopia and Uganda

Across East Africa, national seed policies and commercial seed enterprises have focused on increasing farmers’ access to modern seed varieties. These new varieties are developed and delivered to farmers via the formal seed system, which is comprised of government and private sector seed breeders, processors, and vendors. However, the formal seed system only provides a small share (<20%) of smallholders’ seed in the region. Most farmers source seed from informal seed systems, including own-saved seed, exchanges with neighbors, and local seed markets. At the local level, informal seed systems are preferred by farmers because of proximity and local varietal preferences (e.g., crop variety tastes and suitability for local environmental conditions). At the national and regional levels, the conservation and use of local crop varieties through informal systems has also provided a wealth of crop genetic diversity increasingly recognized as critical for climate change adaptation. To evaluate how policies in East Africa impact seed systems we systematically code 117 provisions in 21 national seed policies in Ethiopia (n=11) and Uganda (n=10), highlighting the implications of current and proposed policies for the availability and accessibility of: (i) improved seed; (ii) quality-controlled seed; and (iii) genetically diverse local seed in both the formal and informal seed systems in each country

Caficultura y cambio climático en Nicaragua: Refexiones sobre el papel de las políticas públicas y las cooperativas

En el marco de un proyecto denominado “Planes de Inversión en Agricultura Sostenible Adaptada al Clima” implementado por CEDECO, HIVOS, Bioversity Internacional, el Centro Mundial de Agroforestería (ICRAF) y la Universidad de Vermont, Bioversity International llevó a cabo un estudio sobre el marco político e institucional que rodea la producción del café por pequeños productores en Nicaragua. Los objetivos del mismo fueron entender y documentar cómo las políticas públicas que regulan la caficultura en Nicaragua así como el modo de funcionar de las cooperativas agrícolas influyen en las prácticas agrícolas de los pequeños productores de café en Nicaragua, y en particular su capacidad para adoptar medidas que les permitan adaptar la producción cafetalera a los efectos del cambio climático

β-Ga₂O₃ nanowires for an ultraviolet light selective frequency photodetector

The behaviour of ß-Ga₂O₃ nanowires as photoconductive material in deep ultraviolet photodetectors to operate in the energy range 3.0-6.2 eV has been investigated. The nanowires were grown by a catalyst-free thermal evaporation method on gallium oxide substrates. Photocurrent measurements have been carried out on both undoped and Sn-doped Ga₂O₃ nanowires to evidence the influence of the dopant on the photodetector performances. The responsivity spectrum of single nanowires show maxima in the energy range 4.8-5.4 eV and a strong dependence on the pulse frequency of the excitation light has been observed for undoped nanowires. Our results show that the responsivity of beta- Ga₂O₃ nanowires can be controlled by tuning the chopper frequency of the excitation light and/ or by doping of the nanowires. Non-linear behavior in characteristic current-voltage curves has been observed for Ga₂O₃ : Sn nanowires. The mechanism leading to this behaviour has been discussed and related to space-charged-limited current effects. In addition, the responsivity achieved by doped nanowires at lower bias is higher than for undoped ones

Optical injection-induced timing jitter reduction in gain-switched single-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

We report an experimental and theoretical investigation of the effect of optical injection on the characteristics of optical pulses generated by gain-switching a 1550 nm single transverse mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). Under continuous wave operation the VCSEL emits in a linear polarization along the whole current range. The experimental analysis of the effect of external optical injection on the timing jitter, maximum power, and pulse width of optical pulses generated by gain-switching the single mode VCSEL is performed for several repetition rates and for different values of the detuning between the frequency of the optical injection and the VCSEL. Experimental results show that for 1 GHz repetition frequency, jitter reductions greater than 70 % can be obtained over a 47 GHz frequency detuning range with a slight increase of 22% in pulse width with respect to the solitary case. A clear anticorrelation between the maximum power and pulse width is also obtained. A theoretical study is also performed by using a model that incorporates both spatial dependence of carrier density and optical field profiles. The two polarization modes are also taken into account in the model. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the experimental result

Psychological well-being among older adults during the COVID-19 outbreak: A comparative study of the young-old and the old-old adults

The COVID-19 outbreak could be considered as an uncontrollable stressful life event. Lockdown measures have provoked a disruption of daily life with a great impact over older adults' health and well-being. Nevertheless, eudaimonic well-being plays a protective role in confronting adverse circumstances, such as the COVID-19 situation. This study aims to assess the association between age and psychological well-being (personal growth and purpose in life). Young-old (60-70 years) and old-old (71-80 years) community-dwelling Spaniards (N = 878) completed a survey and reported on their sociodemographic characteristics and their levels of health, COVID-19 stress-related, appraisal, and personal resources. Old-old did not evidence poorer psychological well-being than young-old. Age has only a negative impact on personal growth. The results also suggest that the nature of the COVID-19 impact (except for the loss of a loved one) may not be as relevant for the older adults' well-being as their appraisals and personal resources for managing COVID-related problems. In addition, these results suggest that some sociodemographic and health-related variables have an impact on older adults' well-being. Thus, perceived-health, family functioning, resilience, gratitude, and acceptance had significant associations with both personal growth and purpose in life. Efforts to address older adults' psychological well-being focusing on older adults' personal resources should be considered

Evaluating the cellular consequences of ACLY inhibition in primary hepatocytes and pancreatic islets

Motivation: Metabolic diseases and their pandemic proportions cause a significant loss in quality and expectancy of life in around 25% of the population. Therefore, the development of more efficient therapies should be a clinical priority. This project aims to evaluate the cellular consequences of a chronic Ac-CoA cytosolic pool reduction induced by the inhibition of ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY), core enzyme in metabolism and major source of Ac-CoA within the cytoplasm. Ac-Coa is a central molecule in many metabolic pathways involved in de novo lipogenesis, cholesterol production and protein acetylation.Methods: Most of the assays were performed on mouse primary cultured hepatocytes and islets of Langerhans. Hepatocytes were obtained by perfusing the mouse liver with collagenase and isolated by filtering and differential centrifugation. Islets of Langerhans were obtained by perfusing the mouse pancreas with collagenase and were isolated by handpicking. Cells were treated with 0, 10, 30, 50 and 100 μM of SB-204990 (SB), an ACLY inhibitor with a Ki of 1 μM. Metabolic cell activity, cell death and urea secretion were measured. Radioactive metabolite tracing was performed to assess ACLY-dependent metabolic functions. Proteins of treated hepatocytes were extracted to perform western blots.Results: In primary hepatocytes, SB neither affected metabolic activity nor urea production when concentration was &lt;50 μM SB. However, exposure to this drug resulted in a significant increase in cell toxicity at ≥30 μM SB. We detected a dose-dependent decrease in liponeogenesis upon treatment. β-oxidation of fatty acids was affected by SB following a hormetic effect, with a rise at 10 μM and a reduction at 50 and 100 μM. The GAPDH protein expression was higher at 10 μM SB, suggesting a modulation of glycolysis/gluconeogenesis. LC3B protein expression patterns indicated autophagy was reduced at 10 μM SB and incremented at 100 μM SB. In primary islets, SB did not impair metabolic activity, while cell death, determined by ELISA, showed a reduction at 30 μM and no effects at other concentrations.Conclusions: The effects of ACLY inhibition showed that this enzyme plays a key role in the cellular homeostasis of primary hepatocytes. Fatty acids catabolism and glucose utilization relies on the presence of functional ACLY. In islets, SB revealed to be non toxic. Our results suggest that ACLY may represent a promising target for the treatment of metabolc disorders

The transverse velocity and excitation structure of the HH 110 jet

We present long-slit spectroscopic observations of the HH 110 jet obtained with the 4.2~m William Herschel Telescope. We have obtained for the first time, spectra for slit positions along and across the jet axis (at the position of knots B, C, I, J and P) to search for the observational signatures of entrainment and turbulence by studying the kinematics and the excitation structure. We find that the HH 110 flow accelerates from a velocity of 35 km/s in knot A up to 110 km/s in knot P. We find some systematic trends for the variation of the emission line ratios along the jet. No clear trends for the variation of the radial velocity are seen across the width of the jet beam. The cross sections of the jet show complex radial velocity and line emission structures which differ quite strongly from each other.Comment: 1 tar fil

Observable implications of geometrical and dynamical aspects of freeze-out in heavy ion collisions

Using an analytical parameterization of hadronic freeze-out in relativistic heavy ion collisions, we present a detailed study of the connections between features of the freeze-out configuration and physical observables. We focus especially on anisotropic freeze-out configurations (expected in general for collisions at finite impact parameter), azimuthally-sensitive HBT interferometry, and final-state interactions between non-identical particles. Model calculations are compared with data taken in the first year of running at RHIC; while not perfect, good agreement is found, raising the hope that a consistent understanding of the full freeze-out scenario at RHIC is possible, an important first step towards understanding the physics of the system prior to freeze-out.Comment: 36 pages, 56 figures, 2 tables; version accepted for publication in PRC: some figures, references and discussion added; now also discusses classical versus quantum statistic