A comparative analysis of governance and leadership in agricultural development policy networks

Agricultural development initiatives feature many public and private organizations working together across sectors and scales to pursue the goals of food security and climate resilience. Policy networks are considered a crucial ingredient for the learning and cooperation needed to effectively implement agricultural development projects and increase community resiliency, yet very little comparative empirical data has been collected to assess where and how these networks operate. We contribute to filling this gap by characterizing the governance and leadership patterns within agricultural development policy networks that connect organizations working on climate resilience and food security activities in 14 smallholder farming communities across 11 countries in East Africa, West Africa and South Asia. We integrate theories of network governance and leadership in international development settings with social network analysis methods to analyze network structures and understand the roles of various actors working collaboratively toward agricultural development goals. We present two critical findings that advance our theoretical understanding of network governance and have implications for agricultural development policy globally. First, we find evidence for three distinct network types: shared and brokered networks, as predicted by the network governance literature, as well as a class of fragmented networks that exhibit extremely low levels of coordination at their core. Additionally, we find that while the presence of international development organizations is associated with greater overall network coordination, it is local and regional organizations that fill central network leadership positions most frequently. These findings suggest that resources may be an important factor in overcoming the cost of coordination, but social capital among local actors may be more important for developing network leadership

The Policy Enabling Environment for Climate Smart Agriculture: A Case Study of California

Climate smart agriculture (CSA) provides a framework for balancing multiple dimensions of agriculture and food systems in an era of climate change: addressing agricultural contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions, vulnerabilities to climate change impacts, and the relationship between agricultural productivity, incomes and food security. As the global climate agenda more thoroughly integrates the CSA framework, policy makers often search for “triple wins”—practices that can mitigate emissions, increase resilience or adaptation, and increase productivity. Agriculture and food systems however, are complex systems with many agroecological and sociopolitical interdependencies. In many cases, there are necessary tradeoffs among the three CSA objectives, as advancement in one area may negatively impact another. A major challenge to implementing CSA across multiple geographies thus lies in the coordination of policies and programs that recognize these tradeoffs and allow for prioritization or reconciliation among the three objectives when there are conflicts. This paper describes California's adoption of CSA principles to illustrate how synergies and trade-offs are addressed in a policy framework that spans regulatory measures, incentive programs, research, and technological development, that is both climate specific and arising from other simultaneous environmental and economic priorities. We provide specific examples where agriculture has benefited and where it is constrained due to the balancing of CSA objectives, and discuss how the policy environment has evolved over time in attempts to deal with the complexity of the agriculture-climate nexus. This case serves to summarize and analyze the implemented CSA initiatives in one of most productive and well-resourced agricultural regions of the world; however, lessons learned from California can serve as transferable knowledge for other regions around the globe who are currently developing CSA policies and plans. Our findings suggest that cross-sectoral collaboration, policy coordination, and inclusion of a diverse set of stakeholders are fundamental to the efficacy of CSA strategies in complex and ever-evolving environmental and sociopolitical conditions

Agricultural development networks in 14 research sites: Findings from the CCAFS Organizational Baseline Survey

This brief summarizes findings from a network analysis using data from the CCAFS Organizational Baseline Surveys (OBS) to analyze how organizations in CCAFS sites coordinate to work together on climate change and agriculture initiatives

HST/ACS Narrowband Imaging of the Kepler Supernova Remnant

We present narrowband images of the Kepler supernova remnant obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. The images, with an angular resolution of 0.05" reveal the structure of the emitting gas in unprecedented detail. Radiative and nonradiative shocks are found in close proximity, unresolvable in gro~md-based spectra, indicating that the pre-shock medium is highly clumped. The ionization structure, traced by differences in the [0 111] to [N 11] flux ratio, varies on subarcsecond scales. The variation is due to 110th differences in shock velocity as well as gradients in the evolutionary stage of the shocks. A pro~llinent complex of knots protruding beyond the boundary of the ren~nallt in the northwest is found to consist of bright radiative knots, collected by arcuate nonradiative filaments. Based on the coincidence of the optical emission with a bright isolated knot of X-ray emission, we infer that this feature is due to a Rayleigh-Taylor finger that formed at the contact discontinuity and overtook the primary blast wave

Spitzer IRAC Images and Sample Spectra of Cassiopeia A's Explosion

We present Spitzer IRAC images, along with representative 5.27 to 38.5 micron IRS spectra of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. We find that various IRAC channels are each most sensitive to a different spectral and physical component. Channel 1 (3.6 micron) matches radio synchrotron images. Where Channel 1 is strong with respect to the other channels, the longer-wavelength spectra show a broad continuum gently peaking around 26 micron, with weak or no lines. We suggest that this is due to un-enriched progenitor circumstellar dust behind the outer shock, processed by shock photons and electrons. Where Channel 4 (8 micron) is bright relative to the other IRAC channels, the long-wavelength spectra show a strong, 2-3 micron-wide peak at 21 micron, likely due to silicates and proto-silicates, as well as strong ionic lines of [Ar II], [Ar III], [S IV] and [Ne II]. In these locations, the dust and ionic emission originate from the explosion's O-burning layers. The regions where Channels 2 (4.5 micron) and 3 (5.6 micron) are strongest relative to Channel 4 show a spectrum that rises gradually to 21 micron, and then flattens or rises more slowly to longer wavelengths, along with higher ratios of [Ne II] to [Ar II]. Dust and ionic emission in these locations arise primarily from the C- and Ne- burning layers. These findings are consistent with asymmetries in the explosion producing variations in the velocity structure in different directions, but preserving the nucleosynthetic layers. At each location, the dust and ionic lines in the mid-infrared, and the hotter and more highly ionized optical and X-ray emission are then dominated by the layer currently encountering the reverse shock in that direction.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, accepted in to the Astrophysical Journal. For full-resolution images, please see http://webusers.astro.umn.edu/~jennis/iracpaper.html. Revised to correct an error in reference

MeerKAT uncovers the physics of an odd radio circle

Odd radio circles (ORCs) are recently-discovered faint diffuse circles of radio emission, of unknown cause, surrounding galaxies at moderate redshift (z ∼0.2-0.6). Here, we present detailed new MeerKAT radio images at 1284 MHz of the first ORC, originally discovered with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, with higher resolution (6 arcsec) and sensitivity (∼2.4 μJy/beam). In addition to the new images, which reveal a complex internal structure consisting of multiple arcs, we also present polarization and spectral index maps. Based on these new data, we consider potential mechanisms that may generate the ORCs

The contribution of dynamic stromal remodeling during mammary development to breast carcinogenesis

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease whose prognosis varies depending upon the developmental stage of the breast tissue at diagnosis. Notably, breast cancers associated with pregnancy exhibit increased rates of metastasis and poorer long-term survival compared to those diagnosed after menopause. However, postmenopausal breast cancers associated with obesity exhibit a more aggressive behavior and confer decreased overall patient survival compared to those diagnosed in non-obese individuals. Since the mammary gland is a dynamic tissue that undergoes significant changes throughout a woman's lifetime, especially during pregnancy and following menopause, we present evidence to support the notion that changes occurring throughout development within the mammary stromal compartment may account for some of the biological differences in breast cancer subtypes and behaviors