Sustainable Food System – Targeting Production Methods, Distribution or Food Basket Content?

Agriculture is the single most important contributor to the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea. Itis responsible for 59% of the anthropogenic nitrogen and 56% of the phosphorous emissions(HELCOM, 2005). A second important source of nutrient emissions is at the other end of thefood system – emissions from municipal waste-water treatment plants and from privatehouseholds. Addressing different aspects of the food system is thus crucial for the Baltic Seaenvironment. To tackle eutrophication both nitrogen and phosphorous loads should bereduced (MVB, 2005). This can be achieved if emissions from the food system are reduced,e.g. by closing the nutrient cycle from soil to crop and back to agricultural soil (Diaz andRosenberg, 2008). Granstedt (2000) finds that the high surplus and emissions of nitrate andphosphorous in Swedish agriculture is a consequence of specialized agriculture with itsseparation of crop and animal production. Similar findings are reported from different partsof Europe (Brower et al., 1995). About 80% of cropland in Sweden is used for fodderproduction but the animal production is concentrated to a limited number of specializedanimal farms. Manure, with its contents of nutrients from the whole agriculture area, istoday concentrated on only 20% of the Swedish arable land (Statistics Sweden, 2011). Thisresults in high nutrient surplus and load of nitrogen and phosphorus from these areas.Granstedt (2000) concludes that the emissions can be limited by combining best availableagricultural technology with increased recycling of nutrients within the agricultural systemtrough integration of crop and animal production - ecological recycling agriculture (ERA).This facilitates an efficient use of the plant nutrients in farm yard manure. Other studies ofnutrient balances comparing farming systems and lifecycle assessment report similarobservations (Halberg, 1999; Myrbeck, 1999; Steinshamn et al., 2004; Uusitalo, 2007). Thepotential of reduced nutrient emissions trough ERA was confirmed in case studies on localorganic farms around the Baltic Sea (Granstedt et al., 2008; Larsson and Granstedt, 2010).Carlsson-Kanyama (1999) found that greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by localand organic food production due to shorter transportation. Similar results are reported in acompilation of studies (FiBL, 2006) and in studies of local production and processing inJärna, Sweden (Wallgren, 2008). According to Carlsson-Kanyama et al. (2004) the reductionsare not significant unless local distribution becomes more efficient.QC 20160524</p

No Fault Found: The Root Cause

No Trouble Found (NTF) has been discussed for several years [1]. An NTF occurs when a device fails at the board/system level and that failure cannot be confirm by the component supplier. There are several explanations for why NTFs occur, including: device complexity; inability to create system level hardware/software transactions which uncover hard to find defects; different environments during testing (power, thermal, noise). More recently a new concept, No Fault Found (NFF), has emerged. A NFF represents a defect which cannot be detected by any known means so far. The premise is that at some point the defect will be exposed - most likely at a customer site when the device is in a system. Given that we looking for a defect that we know nothing about and are theoretically undetectable it will be interesting to see what the panel has to say about the nature of these defects and how we intend to find them

Re-using Chip Level DFT at Board Level

As chips are getting increasingly complex, there is no surprise to find more and more built-in DFX. This built-in DFT is obviously beneficial for chip/silicon DFX engineers; however, board/system level DFX engineers often have limited access to the build in DFX features. There is currently an increasing demand from board/system level DFX engineers to reuse chip/silicon DFX at board/system level. This special session will discuss: What chip access is needed for board-level for test and diagnosis? How to accomplish the access? Will IEEE P1687 and IEEE 1149.1 solve these problems

New Examples of Kochen-Specker Type Configurations on Three Qubits

A new example of a saturated Kochen-Specker (KS) type configuration of 64 rays in 8-dimensional space (the Hilbert space of a triple of qubits) is constructed. It is proven that this configuration has a tropical dimension 6 and that it contains a critical subconfiguration of 36 rays. A natural multicolored generalisation of the Kochen-Specker theory is given based on a concept of an entropy of a saturated configuration of rays.Comment: 24 page

Up-Regulation of A1M/α1-Microglobulin in Skin by Heme and Reactive Oxygen Species Gives Protection from Oxidative Damage

During bleeding the skin is subjected to oxidative insults from free heme and radicals, generated from extracellular hemoglobin. The lipocalin α1-microglobulin (A1M) was recently shown to have reductase properties, reducing heme-proteins and other substrates, and to scavenge heme and radicals. We investigated the expression and localization of A1M in skin and the possible role of A1M in the protection of skin tissue from damage induced by heme and reactive oxygen species. Skin explants, keratinocyte cultures and purified collagen I were exposed to heme, reactive oxygen species, and/or A1M and investigated by biochemical methods and electron microscopy. The results demonstrate that A1M is localized ubiquitously in the dermal and epidermal layers, and that the A1M-gene is expressed in keratinocytes and up-regulated after exposure to heme and reactive oxygen species. A1M inhibited the heme- and reactive oxygen species-induced ultrastructural damage, up-regulation of antioxidation and cell cycle regulatory genes, and protein carbonyl formation in skin and keratinocytes. Finally, A1M bound to purified collagen I (Kd = 0.96×10−6 M) and could inhibit and repair the destruction of collagen fibrils by heme and reactive oxygen species. The results suggest that A1M may have a physiological role in protection of skin cells and matrix against oxidative damage following bleeding

Tillstånd och trender för arter och deras livsmiljöer

2015 års upplaga av den svenska rödlistan är den fjärde i ordningen. Den är baserad på IUCN:s rödlistningskriterier och revideras vart femte år. I rödlistan bedöms risken som enskilda arter av djur, växter och svampar löper att försvinna från Sverige. Bedömningen utförs av ArtDatabankens medarbetare i samverkan med över 100 externa experter, indelade i 14 expertkommittéer för olika organismgrupper. Under arbetet med 2015 års rödlista har tillstånd och trender bedömts för 21 600 arter och 1 318 lägre taxa (apomiktiska arter, underarter och varieteter), sammanlagt ca 22 900 taxa. Av de bedömda arterna klassificerades 2 029 som hotade (kategorierna CR, EN och VU) och 4 273 som rödlistade (inkluderar även kategorierna NT, RE och DD). Förhållandet mellan antalet rödlistade och antalet bedömda arter ar 19,8 %, vilket är ungefär samma värde som 2010 och 2005. I denna rapport jämförs antalet och andelen rödlistade arter mellan olika organismgrupper, biotoper, substrat och påverkansfaktorer. Texten ar indelad i en allmän del och åtta kapitel inriktade på olika landskapstyper. Landskapstyperna utgör en grov indelning av landets miljöer enligt följande kategorier: Skog, Jordbrukslandskap, Urbana miljöer, Fjäll, Våtmarker, Sötvatten, Havsstränder och Havsmiljöer. Skogen och jordbrukslandskapet är de artrikaste landskapstyperna med 1 800 respektive 1 400 arter som har en stark anknytning dit, och ytterligare flera hundra arter som förekommer där mer sporadiskt. De faktorer som påverkar flest rödlistade arter i Sverige är skogsavverkning och igenväxning, som båda utgör ett hot mot vardera ca 30 % av de rödlistade arterna. Avverkning minskar arealen av skog där naturliga strukturer och naturlig dynamik upprätthålls, och den orsakar därmed förlust av livsmiljöer. Igenväxning orsakas av ett antal faktorer, bland annat upphörande hävd (bete och slåtter), gödsling, trädplantering och brist på naturliga störningsregimer som t.ex. regelbundna översvämningar kring vattendrag och sjöar. Andra viktiga påverkansfaktorer är fiske, torrläggning av våtmarker, tillbakagång hos värdarter (främst alm och ask som drabbats av invasiva svampsjukdomar), klimatförändringar och konkurrens från invasiva arter. IUCN:s rödlisteindex beräknas för ett urval av de bedömda organismgrupperna. Rödlisteindex visar att skillnaderna mellan rödlistorna från 2000, 2005, 2010 och 2015 är små. Ett par undantag finns dock. Groddjur och stora däggdjur har fått en något förbättrad situation sedan 2000. Totalt förefaller det ändå som att trycket mot Sveriges artstock har förblivit relativt konstant under de senaste 15 åren

The OpenMolcas Web: A Community-Driven Approach to Advancing Computational Chemistry

The developments of the open-source OpenMolcas chemistry software environment since spring 2020 are described, with a focus on novel functionalities accessible in the stable branch of the package or via interfaces with other packages. These developments span a wide range of topics in computational chemistry and are presented in thematic sections: electronic structure theory, electronic spectroscopy simulations, analytic gradients and molecular structure optimizations, ab initio molecular dynamics, and other new features. This report offers an overview of the chemical phenomena and processes OpenMolcas can address, while showing that OpenMolcas is an attractive platform for state-of-the-art atomistic computer simulations

Ädellövskogar i Munkedals kommun

Skogar med ädla lövträd, dvs. ek, bok, alm, ask lind, lönn och fågelbär, utgör en av Göteborgs och Bohus läns mest värdefulla biotoper Genom sin stora biologiska mångfald är de en av de mest skyddsvärda miljöerna. Sedan 1984 gäller särskilda skogslagar vars syfte är att bevara landets ädellövskogsareal. Detta innebär att befintlig ädellövskog endast får föryngras med ädla lövträd om inte särskilda skäl kan motiveras. Skogsvärdsstyrelsen ansvarar för tillsyn och rådgivning. Länsstyrelsen i Göteborgs och Bohus län är en av få länsstyrelser i landet som bedriver en systematisk inventering av ädellövskogarna. Följande inventering av Munkedals kommun utgör den elfte sammanställningen i en kommunvis rapportserie. Inventeringen är tänkt att tjäna som underlag dels vid myndigheters prövning och rådgivning enligt gällande skogsvårdslagstiftning, dels i samband med naturvårdsplanering som bedrivs i statlig och kommunal regi. Lövskogar som inte går under beteckningen ädellövskog finns även med i inventeringen, detta är skogar som påträffats under inventeringsarbetet där man noterat höga naturvärden.Regionala inventeringsrapporter import från MDP 2015-05</p

Sustainable governance of agriculture and the Baltic Sea : Agricultural reforms, food production and curbed eutrophication

Agricultural production and nutrient loads to the Baltic Sea are likely to increase following Poland's and the Baltic States' entrance into the EU. According to HELCOM these trends will be highly dependent on the agricultural policies of the EU. The expansion of the EU can be seen as a window of opportunity where agricultural policy could improve the Baltic Sea environment. Longstanding initiatives with local organic food systems and Ecological Recycling Agriculture (ERA) in the eight EU-countries in the Baltic Sea drainage area were evaluated during 2001–2004. The empirical results were scaled up to calculate environmental impact and food production for three different scenarios. In one scenario the Baltic Countries and Poland convert their agriculture following the average Swedish production.This resulted in 58% increase of nitrogen and 18% increase in phosphorus surplus, a corresponding increase inthe load to the Baltic Sea and increased food production. In two other scenarios agriculture production in thewhole Baltic Sea drainage area converts to ERA. This halved the nitrogen surplus from agriculture andeliminated the surplus of phosphorus. In these scenarios food production would decrease or remain stabledepending on strategy chosen.QC 20160524</p