Climate Benefits Tenure Costs: The Economic Case for Securing Indigenous Land Rights in the Amazon

A new report offers evidence that the modest investments needed to secure land rights for indigenous communities will generate billions in returns—economically, socially and environmentally—for local communities and the world's changing climate. The report, Climate Benefits, Tenure Costs: The Economic Case for Securing Indigenous Land Rights, quantifies for the first time the economic value of securing land rights for the communities who live in and protect forests, with a focus on Colombia, Brazil, and Bolivia

Management of submacular hemorrhage with intravitreal versus subretinal injection of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator

To compare the efficacy of pars plana vitrectomy (ppV) with intravitreal injection of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) and gas versus ppV with subretinal injection of rtPA and intravitreal injection of gas

Avoiding the resource curse : spotlight on oil in Uganda

Uganda has made significant progress in codifying the rights of access to information (ATI) and participation and toward putting in place the institutional infrastructure, including a regulatory framework for the oil sector. Political roll-backs that are re-concentrating power in the executive branch of government and the growing scale of known oil reserves however, may jeopardize these advances. This paper reviews the Petroleum Bill in terms of exemptions to ATI. The government has not released to the public, or even to Parliament, important information regarding the oil sector, including the five Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) with oil exploration companies

Climate Benefits Tenure Costs: The Economic Case for Securing Indigenous Land Rights in the Amazon, Executive Summary

A new report offers evidence that the modest investments needed to secure land rights for indigenous communities will generate billions in returns—economically, socially and environmentally—for local communities and the world's changing climate. The report, Climate Benefits, Tenure Costs: The Economic Case for Securing Indigenous Land Rights, quantifies for the first time the economic value of securing land rights for the communities who live in and protect forests, with a focus on Colombia, Brazil, and Bolivia

Research of the Power Plant Operational Modes

In this article the algorithm of the power plant operational modes research is offered. According to this algorithm the program for the modes analysis and connection power transformers choice is developed. The program can be used as educational means for studying of the power plant electric part, at the same time basic data are provided. Also the program can be used for the analysis of the working power plants modes. Checks of the entered data completeness and a choice correctness of the operational modes are provided in the program; in all cases of a deviation from the correct decisions to the user the relevant information is given

Feeding regulates sex pheromone attraction and courtship in Drosophila females

In Drosophila melanogaster, gender-specific behavioural responses to the male-produced sex pheromone cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA) rely on sexually dimorphic, third-order neural circuits. We show that nutritional state in female flies modulates cVA perception in first-order olfactory neurons. Starvation increases, and feeding reduces attraction to food odour, in both sexes. Adding cVA to food odour, however, maintains attraction in fed females, while it has no effect in males. Upregulation of sensitivity and behavioural responsiveness to cVA in fed females is paralleled by a strong increase in receptivity to male courtship. Functional imaging of the antennal lobe (AL), the olfactory centre in the insect brain, shows that olfactory input to DA1 and VM2 glomeruli is also modulated by starvation. Knocking down insulin receptors in neurons converging onto the DA1 glomerulus suggests that insulin-signalling partly controls pheromone perception in the AL, and adjusts cVA attraction according to nutritional state and sexual receptivity in Drosophila females

Lymphoma tumor burden before chimeric antigen receptor T-Cell treatment: RECIL vs. Lugano vs. metabolic tumor assessment

Purpose: High tumor burden has emerged as a negative predictor of efficacy in chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CART) in patients with refractory or relapsed large B-cell lymphoma. This study analyzed the deviation among imaging-based tumor burden (TB) metrics and their association with progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Materials and methods: In this single-center observational study, we included all consecutively treated patients receiving CD19 CART with available baseline PET-CT imaging. Imaging-based TB was determined based on response evaluation criteria in lymphoma (RECIL), the Lugano criteria, and metabolic tumor volume. Total, nodal and extranodal TB were represented, according to the respective criteria, by sum of longest diameters (TBRECIL), sum of product of perpendicular diameters (TBLugano), and metabolic tumor volume (TBMTV). Correlation statistics were used for comparison. Proportional Cox regression analysis studied the association of TB metrics with PFS and OS. Results: 34 consecutive patients were included (median age: 67 years, 41% female) with total median baseline TBRECIL of 12.5 cm, TBLugano of 4,030 mm2 and TBMTV of 330 mL. The correlation of TBRECIL and TBLugano with TBMTV was strong (ρ=0.744, p50% (HR=2.915, p=0.042), whereas total TBRECIL>50% and total TBLugano>50% were not significant (both p>0.05). None of the total TB metrics were associated with OS (all p>0.05). Conclusion: Pre-CART TB metrics vary significantly based on the assessment method, impacting their association with survival outcomes. The correlation between TBRECIL, TBLugano and TBMTV was influenced by disease phenotype and prior bridging therapy. TB method of assessment must be considered when interpreting the impact of TB on outcomes in clinical trials. Considering the heterogeneity, our results argue for standardization and harmonization across centers

Initial State Interactions for K−K^--Proton Radiative Capture

The effects of the initial state interactions on the $K^--p$ radiative capture branching ratios are examined and found to be quite sizable. A general coupled-channel formalism for both strong and electromagnetic channels using a particle basis is presented, and applied to all the low energy $K^--p$ data with the exception of the {\it 1s} atomic level shift. Satisfactory fits are obtained using vertex coupling constants for the electromagnetic channels that are close to their expected SU(3) values.Comment: 16 pages, uses revte

Coherent diffraction of single Rice Dwarf virus particles using hard X-rays at the Linac Coherent Light Source

Single particle diffractive imaging data from Rice Dwarf Virus (RDV) were recorded using the Coherent X-ray Imaging (CXI) instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). RDV was chosen as it is a wellcharacterized model system, useful for proof-of-principle experiments, system optimization and algorithm development. RDV, an icosahedral virus of about 70 nm in diameter, was aerosolized and injected into the approximately 0.1 mu m diameter focused hard X-ray beam at the CXI instrument of LCLS. Diffraction patterns from RDV with signal to 5.9 angstrom ngstrom were recorded. The diffraction data are available through the Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank (CXIDB) as a resource for algorithm development, the contents of which are described here.11Ysciescopu

Early Influences of Nutrition on Postnatal Growth

Health and nutrition modulate postnatal growth. The availability ofamino acids and energy, and insulin and insulin-like growth factor-I(IGF-I) regulates early growth through the mTOR pathway. Amino acids andglucose also stimulate the secretion of IGF-I and insulin. Postnatalgrowth induces lasting, programming effects on later body size andadiposity in animals and in human observational studies. Rapid weightgain in infancy and the first 2 years was shown to predict increasedobesity risk in childhood and adulthood. Breastfeeding leads to lesserhigh weight gain in infancy and reduces obesity risk in later life byabout 20%, presumably partly due to the lower protein supply with humanmilk than conventional infant formula. In a large randomized clinicaltrial, we tested the hypothesis that reduced infant formula proteincontents lower insulin-releasing amino acid concentrations and therebydecrease circulating insulin and IGF-I levels, resulting in lesser earlyweight gain and reduced later obesity risk (the ‘Early ProteinHypothesis’). The results demonstrate that lowered protein in infantformula induces similar - but not equal - metabolic and endocrineresponses and normalizes weight and BMI relative to breastfed controlsat the age of 2 years. The results available should lead to enhancedefforts to actively promote, protect and support breastfeeding. Forinfants that are not breastfed or not fully breastfed, the use of infantformulas with lower protein contents but high protein quality appearspreferable. Cows’ milk as a drink provides high protein intake andshould be avoided in infancy