Regionalisation and the rescaling of agro-food governance: case study evidence from two English regions

Copyright © 2012 Elsevier. NOTICE: This is the author’s version of a work accepted for publication by Elsevier. Changes resulting from the publishing process, including peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting and other quality control mechanisms, may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Political Geography, 2012, Vol. 31 Issue 2, pp. 83 – 93 DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2011.10.007Some researchers detected a new-found subsidiarity in rural policy after England’s 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic, with regional and sub-regional institutions working together to implement an economic recovery strategy. While such research began to link debates on the new regionalism and the re-scaling of agro-food governance, its conception of the latter focused too narrowly on the ‘turn to quality’, thereby overlooking other important aspects of food relocalisation. Based on interviews conducted in England’s South West and West Midlands regions, this paper examines whether the attitudes of key actors from regional and sub-regional governance institutions provided a sound basis for partnership working on the food relocalisation policies recommended in the Government’s Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food. It finds different attitudes on the part of regional and sub-regional actors, with the former favouring regional foods and the latter local foods. Despite scepticism from both groups about the ability of the England Rural Development Programme (2000-2006) to promote food relocalisation, grants were awarded to both regional and local food entrepreneurs, suggesting that the programme contributed more to food relocalisation than previously thought

Pionic Atom Spectroscopy in the (d,3He) reaction at finite angles

We study the formation of deeply bound pionic atoms in the (d,3He) reactions theoretically and show the energy spectra of the emitted 3He at finite angles, which are expected to be observed experimentally. We find that the different combinations of the pion-bound and neutron-hole states dominate the spectra at different scattering angles because of the matching condition of the reaction. We conclude that the observation of the (d,3He) reaction at finite angles will provide the systematic information of the pionic bound states in each nucleus and will help to develop the study of the pion properties and the partial restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclei.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Precision spectroscopy of pionic 1s states of Sn nuclei and evidence for partial restoration of chiral symmetry in the nuclear medium

Deeply bound 1s states of $\pi^-$ in $^{115,119,123}$Sn were preferentially observed using the Sn($d$,$^3$He) pion-transfer reaction under the recoil-free condition. The 1s binding energies and widths were precisely determined, and were used to deduce the isovector parameter of the s-wave pion-nucleus potential to be $b_1 =-0.115\pm 0.007 ~m_{\pi}^{-1}$. The observed enhancement of $|b_1|$ over the free $\pi N$ value ($b_1^{\rm free}/b_1 = 0.78 \pm 0.05$) indicates a reduction of the chiral order parameter, $f^{*}_{\pi} (\rho)^2/f_{\pi}^2 \approx 0.64$, at the normal nuclear density, $\rho = \rho_0$.Comment: 4 pages including 3 postscript figures, RevTeX 4 with multirow.sty, submitted to Physical Review Letter

S-Nitrosoglutathione reduces oxidative injury and promotes mechanisms of neurorepair following traumatic brain injury in rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Traumatic brain injury (TBI) induces primary and secondary damage in both the endothelium and the brain parenchyma, collectively termed the neurovascular unit. While neurons die quickly by necrosis, a vicious cycle of secondary injury in endothelial cells exacerbates the initial injury in the neurovascular unit following TBI. In activated endothelial cells, excessive superoxide reacts with nitric oxide (NO) to form peroxynitrite. Peroxynitrite has been implicated in blood brain barrier (BBB) leakage, altered metabolic function, and neurobehavioral impairment. S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO), a nitrosylation-based signaling molecule, was reported not only to reduce brain levels of peroxynitrite and oxidative metabolites but also to improve neurological function in TBI, stroke, and spinal cord injury. Therefore, we investigated whether GSNO promotes the neurorepair process by reducing the levels of peroxynitrite and the degree of oxidative injury.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>TBI was induced by controlled cortical impact (CCI) in adult male rats. GSNO or 3-Morpholino-sydnonimine (SIN-1) (50 μg/kg body weight) was administered orally two hours following CCI. The same dose was repeated daily until endpoints. GSNO-treated (GSNO group) or SIN-1-treated (SIN-1 group) injured animals were compared with vehicle-treated injured animals (TBI group) and vehicle-treated sham-operated animals (Sham group) in terms of peroxynitrite, NO, glutathione (GSH), lipid peroxidation, blood brain barrier (BBB) leakage, edema, inflammation, tissue structure, axon/myelin integrity, and neurotrophic factors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>SIN-1 treatment of TBI increased whereas GSNO treatment decreased peroxynitrite, lipid peroxides/aldehydes, BBB leakage, inflammation and edema in a short-term treatment (4-48 hours). GSNO also reduced brain infarctions and enhanced the levels of NO and GSH. In a long-term treatment (14 days), GSNO protected axonal integrity, maintained myelin levels, promoted synaptic plasticity, and enhanced the expression of neurotrophic factors.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings indicate the participation of peroxynitrite in the pathobiology of TBI. GSNO treatment of TBI not only reduces peroxynitrite but also protects the integrity of the neurovascular unit, indicating that GSNO blunts the deleterious effects of peroxynitrite. A long-term treatment of TBI with the same low dose of GSNO promotes synaptic plasticity and enhances the expression of neurotrophic factors. These results support that GSNO reduces the levels of oxidative metabolites, protects the neurovascular unit, and promotes neurorepair mechanisms in TBI.</p

Dental evidence for variation in diet over time and space in the Arctic fox, Vulpes lagopus

Studies of the effects of variation in resource availability are important for understanding the ecology of high-latitude mammals. This paper examines the potential of dental evidence (tooth wear and breakage) as a proxy for diet and food choice in Vulpes lagopus, the Arctic fox. It presents a preliminary study of dental microwear, gross wear score, and tooth breakage in a sample (n = 78 individuals) from the Yamal Peninsula of the Russian Arctic. While these measures have each been associated with feeding ecology in larger carnivorans (e.g., proportion of bone in the diet), they have yet to be combined in any study and have rarely been applied to smaller species or those from high latitudes. Arctic foxes from the north and south of the peninsula, and those from rodent peak and trough density periods, are compared to assess impact of changes in food availability across space and time. Results indicate that microwear textures vary in dispersion, with more variation in texture complexity, including higher values (suggesting more consumption of bone), in the rodent-poor period in the north of Yamal. Gross wear scores and tooth breakage are also significantly higher for the north of Yamal than the south. These data together suggest that dental evidence can provide important insights into variation in the feeding ecology of Arctic foxes and potentially into the impacts of changes in food abundance across space and time

Synchronous timing of return to breeding sites in a long-distance migratory seabird with ocean-scale variation in migration schedules

Background Migratory birds generally have tightly scheduled annual cycles, in which delays can have carry-over effects on the timing of later events, ultimately impacting reproductive output. Whether temporal carry-over effects are more pronounced among migrations over larger distances, with tighter schedules, is a largely unexplored question. Methods We tracked individual Arctic Skuas Stercorarius parasiticus, a long-distance migratory seabird, from eight breeding populations between Greenland and Siberia using light-level geolocators. We tested whether migration schedules among breeding populations differ as a function of their use of seven widely divergent wintering areas across the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean. Results Breeding at higher latitudes led not only to later reproduction and migration, but also faster spring migration and shorter time between return to the breeding area and clutch initiation. Wintering area was consistent within individuals among years; and more distant areas were associated with more time spent on migration and less time in the wintering areas. Skuas adjusted the period spent in the wintering area, regardless of migration distance, which buffered the variation in timing of autumn migration. Choice of wintering area had only minor effects on timing of return at the breeding area and timing of breeding and these effects were not consistent between breeding populations. Conclusion The lack of a consistent effect of wintering area on timing of return between breeding areas indicates that individuals synchronize their arrival with others in their population despite extensive individual differences in migration strategies

Dental evidence for variation in diet over time and space in the Arctic fox, Vulpes lagopus

Studies of the effects of variation in resource availability are important for understanding the ecology of high-latitude mammals. This paper examines the potential of dental evidence (tooth wear and breakage) as a proxy for diet and food choice in Vulpes lagopus, the Arctic fox. It presents a preliminary study of dental microwear, gross wear score, and tooth breakage in a sample (n = 78 individuals) from the Yamal Peninsula of the Russian Arctic. While these measures have each been associated with feeding ecology in larger carnivorans (e.g., proportion of bone in the diet), they have yet to be combined in any study and have rarely been applied to smaller species or those from high latitudes. Arctic foxes from the north and south of the peninsula, and those from rodent peak and trough density periods, are compared to assess impact of changes in food availability across space and time. Results indicate that microwear textures vary in dispersion, with more variation in texture complexity, including higher values (suggesting more consumption of bone), in the rodent-poor period in the north of Yamal. Gross wear scores and tooth breakage are also significantly higher for the north of Yamal than the south. These data together suggest that dental evidence can provide important insights into variation in the feeding ecology of Arctic foxes and potentially into the impacts of changes in food abundance across space and time

Network Life Time maximization of the AOMDV Protocol Using Nodes Energy Variation

Mobile ad hoc network presents generally several challenges such as high dynamic topology, packet loss and frequent routes discovering that result in low throughput and reduced packet delivery ratio. To reduce the number of route discovering process, multipath routing protocols makes use of alternate paths to continue packets transmission. Ad Hoc On-demand, multipath distance vector routing protocol or AOMDV, is one of the well-known multipath protocols that relays on the hop count metric to route packets. However maintaining disjoint active routes can reduce nodes life time and lead to more control messages like error and discovering packets. In this paper, a pre-emptive approach is proposed based on the historical values of nodes energy. Nodes that excessively consume energy in time are considered overloaded and are excluded from route discovering, hence nodes with reduced energy variation are selected to route packets. Simulation results show reduced number of dead nodes by 30 %, overhead by 16%

eta-Nucleus interactions and in-medium properties of N*(1535) in chiral models

The properties of eta-nucleus interaction and their experimental consequences are investigated with eta-nucleus optical potentials obtained by postulating the N*(1535) dominance for eta-N system. The N*(1535) properties in nuclear medium are evaluated by two kinds of chiral effective models based on distinct pictures of N*(1535). We find that these two models provide qualitatively different optical potentials of the eta meson, reflecting the in-medium properties of N*(1535) in these models. In order to compare these models in physical observables, we calculate spectra of (d,3He) reactions for the eta mesic nucleus formation with various kinds of target nuclei. We show that the (d,3He) spectra obtained in these models are significantly different and are expected to be distinguishable in experiments.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure