1,834 research outputs found
Mainstreaming Underutilized Indigenous and Traditional Crops into Food Systems: A South African Perspective
Business as usual or transformative change? While the global agro-industrial food system is credited with increasing food production, availability and accessibility, it is also credited with giving birth to ‘new’ challenges such as malnutrition, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. We reviewed the potential of underutilized indigenous and traditional crops to bring about a transformative change to South Africa’s food system. South Africa has a dichotomous food system, characterized by a distinct, dominant agro-industrial, and, alternative, informal food system. This dichotomous food system has inadvertently undermined the development of smallholder producers. While the dominant agro-industrial food system has led to improvements in food supply, it has also resulted in significant trade-offs with agro-biodiversity, dietary diversity, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic stability, especially amongst the rural poor. This challenges South Africa’s ability to deliver on sustainable and healthy food systems under environmental change. The review proposes a transdisciplinary approach to mainstreaming underutilized indigenous and traditional crops into the food system, which offers real opportunities for developing a sustainable and healthy food system, while, at the same time, achieving societal goals such as employment creation, wellbeing, and environmental sustainability. This process can be initiated by researchers translating existing evidence for informing policy-makers. Similarly, policy-makers need to acknowledge the divergence in the existing policies, and bring about policy convergence in pursuit of a food system which includes smallholder famers, and where underutilized indigenous and traditional crops are mainstreamed into the South African food system
Quantum Correlations in Multipartite Quantum Systems
We review some concepts and properties of quantum correlations, in particular
multipartite measures, geometric measures and monogamy relations. We also
discuss the relation between classical and total correlationsComment: to be published as a chapter of the book "Lectures on general quantum
correlations and their applications" edited by F. Fanchini, D. Soares-Pinto,
and G. Adesso (Springer, 2017
Invariant quantum discord in qubit-qutrit systems under local dephasing
We investigate the dynamics of quantum discord and entanglement for a
class of mixed qubit-qutrit states assuming that only the qutrit is under the action of a dephasing channel. We demonstrate that even though the entanglement in the qubit-qutrit state disappears in a finite time interval, partial coherence left in the system enables quantum discord to remain invariant throughout the whole time evolution
Quantum correlations in a few-atom spin-1 Bose-Hubbard model
We study the thermal quantum correlations and entanglement in spin-1 Bose-Hubbard model with two and three particles. While we use negativity to calculate entanglement, more general non-classical correlations are quantified using a new measure based on a necessary and sufficient condition for zero-discord state. We demonstrate that the energy level crossings in the ground state of the system are signalled by both the behavior of thermal quantum correlations and entanglement
Decoherence on a two-dimensional quantum walk using four- and two-state particle
We study the decoherence effects originating from state flipping and
depolarization for two-dimensional discrete-time quantum walks using four-state
and two-state particles. By quantifying the quantum correlations between the
particle and position degree of freedom and between the two spatial ()
degrees of freedom using measurement induced disturbance (MID), we show that
the two schemes using a two-state particle are more robust against decoherence
than the Grover walk, which uses a four-state particle. We also show that the
symmetries which hold for two-state quantum walks breakdown for the Grover
walk, adding to the various other advantages of using two-state particles over
four-state particles.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figures, In Press, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. (2013
Characterization of the UK anthrax vaccine and human immunogenicity
The manufacture of the UK Anthrax vaccine (AVP) focuses on the production of Protective Antigen (PA) from the Bacillus anthracis Sterne strain. Although used for decades, several of AVP’s fundamental properties are poorly understood, including its exact composition, the extent to which proteins other than PA may contribute to protection, and whether the degree of protection varies between individuals.
This study involved three innovative investigations. Firstly, the composition of AVP was analyzed using liquid chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), requiring the development of a novel desorption method for releasing B. anthracis proteins from the vaccine’s aluminum-containing adjuvant. Secondly, computational MHC-binding predictions using NetMHCIIpan were made for the eight most abundant proteins of AVP, for the commonest HLA alleles in multiple ethnic groups, and for multiple B. anthracis strains. Thirdly, antibody levels and toxin neutralizing antibody (TNA) levels were measured in sera from AVP human vaccinees for both PA and Lethal Factor (LF).
It was demonstrated that AVP is composed of at least 138 B. anthracis proteins, including PA (65%), LF (8%) and Edema Factor (EF) (3%), using LC-MS/MS. NetMHCIIpan predicted that peptides from all eight abundant proteins are likely to be presented to T cells, a pre-requisite for protection; however, the number of such peptides varied considerably between different HLA alleles.
These analyses highlight two important properties of the AVP vaccine that have not been established previously. Firstly, the effectiveness of AVP within humans may not depend on PA alone; there is compelling evidence to suggest that LF has a protective role, with computational predictions suggesting that additional proteins may be important for individuals with specific HLA allele combinations. Secondly, in spite of differences in the sequences of key antigenic proteins from different B. anthracis strains, these are unlikely to affect the cross-strain protection afforded by AVP
The Potential Role of Neglected and Underutilised Crop Species as Future Crops under Water Scarce Conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa
Modern agricultural systems that promote cultivation of a very limited number of crop species have relegated indigenous crops to the status of neglected and underutilised crop species (NUCS). The complex interactions of water scarcity associated with climate change and variability in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and population pressure require innovative strategies to address food insecurity and undernourishment. Current research efforts have identified NUCS as having potential to reduce food and nutrition insecurity, particularly for resource poor households in SSA. This is because of their adaptability to low input agricultural systems and nutritional composition. However, what is required to promote NUCS is scientific research including agronomy, breeding, post-harvest handling and value addition, and linking farmers to markets. Among the essential knowledge base is reliable information about water utilisation by NUCS with potential for commercialisation. This commentary identifies and characterises NUCS with agronomic potential in SSA, especially in the semi-arid areas taking into consideration inter alia: (i) what can grow under water-scarce conditions, (ii) water requirements, and (iii) water productivity. Several representative leafy vegetables, tuber crops, cereal crops and grain legumes were identified as fitting the NUCS category. Agro-biodiversity remains essential for sustainable agriculture
Negativity and quantum discord in Davies environments
We investigate the time evolution of negativity and quantum discord for a
pair of non-interacting qubits with one being weakly coupled to a decohering
Davies--type Markovian environment. At initial time of preparation, the qubits
are prepared in one of the maximally entangled pure Bell states. In the
limiting case of pure decoherence (i.e. pure dephasing), both, the quantum
discord and negativity decay to zero in the long time limit. In presence of a
manifest dissipative dynamics, the entanglement negativity undergoes a sudden
death at finite time while the quantum discord relaxes continuously to zero
with increasing time. We find that in dephasing environments the decay of the
negativity is more propitious with increasing time; in contrast, the evolving
decay of the quantum discord proceeds weaker for dissipative environments.
Particularly, the slowest decay of the quantum discord emerges when the energy
relaxation time matches the dephasing time.Comment: submitted for publicatio
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