The Impact of Globalization on Women: Testing Vandana Shiva’s Critique of Development

Vandana Shiva argues that through the masculinization of agriculture globalization has turned nature and women into passive fields for sowing. Shiva’s critique that international trade, and globalization more generally, has undermined the social and economic position of women in less developed countries provides a wealth of testable hypotheses. For example, Shiva’s argument implies that gender earnings inequality is higher in countries that are more integrated into the world economy, ceteris paribus. After summarizing her argument, we test this hypothesis through cross-sectional regression analysis.Gender Earnings Inequality; Vandana Shiva; Kuznets Curve

Physics in Riemann's mathematical papers

Riemann's mathematical papers contain many ideas that arise from physics, and some of them are motivated by problems from physics. In fact, it is not easy to separate Riemann's ideas in mathematics from those in physics. Furthermore, Riemann's philosophical ideas are often in the background of his work on science. The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of Riemann's mathematical results based on physical reasoning or motivated by physics. We also elaborate on the relation with philosophy. While we discuss some of Riemann's philosophical points of view, we review some ideas on the same subjects emitted by Riemann's predecessors, and in particular Greek philosophers, mainly the pre-socratics and Aristotle. The final version of this paper will appear in the book: From Riemann to differential geometry and relativity (L. Ji, A. Papadopoulos and S. Yamada, ed.) Berlin: Springer, 2017

Variability in IC5070: two young stars with deep recurring eclipses

Investigating the structure and properties of the innermost parts of protoplanetary accretion disks on sub-AU scales is currently only possible via indirect methods. One option to map the planet-forming zone is to search for occultations of the central young stellar object (YSO) by circumstellar material, e.g., warps or clumps in the inner disks. Such disk eclipses typically last hours to days (Cody et al. 2014) and have been identified in massive HAeBe stars such as UX Ori (Herbst & Shevchenko 1999) and lower mass objects such as AA Tau (Bouvier et al. 1999). Of particular interest are quasi-periodic dimming events. They allow distance determinations of the occulting material from the central star. In such cases the actual azimuthal physical extent of the material can be determined from the duration of the dimming event relative to the period. Observations over several periods enable investigations into temporal changes in the line of sight column density distribution, and multi-wavelength data allows us to probe the dust scattering properties. Our citizen science project HOYS-CAPS (Froebrich et al. 2018) aims to identify such periodic dimming events around YSOs. We used this data-set to search for periodic signatures in light-curves from YSOs in the Pelican nebula (IC 5070). For this field we have ~200 individual observations in the V, R, and I-band filters, distributed over ~800 days. Hence, the average cadence is 4 days, but the most frequent gap (30%) between subsequent observations is 2 days. Observations are usually taken as 8 × 2 minutes integrations in all filters to achieve a consistent S/N

Crop Updates - 2009 Katanning

This session covers seventeen papers from different authors GM canola – How will it affect the way I farm? Murray Scholz, 2008 Nuffield scholar, Southern NSW Eight years of IWM smashes tyegrass seed banks by 98% over 31 focus paddocks, Peter Newman, Glenn Adam & Trevor Bell, Department of Agriculture and Food The global economic climate and impacts on agriculture, profile on Michael Whitehead Rabobank New York Lessons from five years of cropping systems research, W.K. Anderson, Department of Agriculture and Food Case study of a 17year old agricultural lime trial, C. Gazey, Department of Agriculture and Food, J. Andrew, Precision SoilTech and R. Pearce, ConsultAg Fertilising in a changing price environment, Bill Bowden, Wayne Pluske and Jeremy Lemon, Department of Agriculture and Food Fact or Fiction: Who is telling the truth and how to tell the difference? D.C. Edmeades, agKnowledge Ltd, Hamilton Forecast disease resistance profile for the Western Australian barley crop over the next three years, JJ Russell, Department of Agriculture and Food Malting barley varieties differ in their flowering date and their response to change in sowing date, BH Paynter and JJ Russell, Department of Agriculture and Food Decimating weed seed banks within non-crop phases for the benefit of subsequent crops, Dr Davis Ferris, Department of Agriculture and Food Autumn cleaning yellow serradella pastures with broad spectrum herbicides – a novel weed control strategy that exploits delayed germination, Dr Davis Ferris, Department of Agriculture and Food Emerging weeds in changing farming systems, Dr Abul Hashen, Department of Agriculture and Food More glyphosate-resistant annual ryegrass populations within Western Australia, Dr Abul Hashem and Dr Catherine Borger, Department of Agriculture and Food Reasons to use only the full label herbicide rate, Stephen B. Powels, Qin Yu, Mechelle Owen, Roberto Busi, Sudheesh Manalil, University of Western Australia Flaxleaf fleabane – coming to a property near you! Sally Peltzer, Department of Agriculture and Food Glyphosate – the consequences of cutting rates! Sally Peltzer and David Minkey, Department of Agriculture and Food Benefits of crop rotations/break crops in managing soil moisture, soil health, weeds and disease – an overview, Raj Malik, Department of Agriculture and Foo

National approaches to the vaccination of recently arrived migrants in Europe : A comparative policy analysis across 32 European countries

Funding Information: However, current approaches to the vaccination of migrants have not been well documented to date, and it is acknowledged that there are additional challenges in ensuring equitable access to vaccines in diverse and mobile migrant populations [9,11]. The ongoing refugee crisis has facilitated renewed dialogue around approaches to the screening and vaccination of recently arrived migrants for infectious diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the United Nations Children's Fund recommended in 2015 that migrants in the WHO European Region should be vaccinated soon after arrival in accordance with the immunisation schedule of the receiving country in which they intend to stay for more than a week [11], and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is currently developing guidance on approaches to vaccine-preventable diseases in newly arrived migrants [12]. However, there has to date been no comprehensive examination of what policies or guidelines are currently implemented across Europe, or how they compare across countries. In order to facilitate the harmonisation of vaccination policies across Europe and identify best practice, a clear understanding of the different policies and of the key gaps or inconsistencies in such policies is needed [13,14]. We therefore did a comparative analysis of policies and guidelines in EU/EEA countries and Switzerland relating to the provision of vaccinations to recently arrived migrants to identify common approached.This research was funded by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases through the ESCMID Study Group for Infections in Travellers and Migrants (ESGITM). LBN, SH, and JSF receive funding from the UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, the Imperial College Healthcare Charity, and the Wellcome Trust (Grant number 209993/Z/17/Z). Funding Information: This research was funded by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases through the ESCMID Study Group for Infections in Travellers and Migrants (ESGITM). LBN, SH, and JSF receive funding from the UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre , the Imperial College Healthcare Charity , and the Wellcome Trust (Grant number 209993/Z/17/Z ). Publisher Copyright: © 2018 The AuthorsBackground: Migrants may be underimmunised and at higher risk of vaccine-preventable diseases, yet there has been no comprehensive examination of what policies are currently implemented across Europe targeting child and adult migrants. We analysed vaccination policies for migrants in 32 EU/EEA countries and Switzerland. Methods: Using framework analysis, we did a comparative analysis of national policies and guidelines pertaining to vaccination in recently arrived migrants through a systematic guideline and literature review and by approaching national experts. Results: Six (18.8%) of 32 countries had comprehensive policies specific to the vaccination of migrants (two focused only on child migrants, four on both adults and children). Nineteen (59.4%) countries applied their national vaccination schedule for migrant vaccinations, predominantly focusing on children; and five (15.6%) countries had circulated additional migrant-specific resources to relevant health-care providers. In six (18.8%) countries, policies on migrant vaccination focused on outbreak-specific vaccines only. In ten (31.3%) countries, policies focused on priority vaccinations, with polio being the vaccine most commonly administered and heterogeneity noted in vaccines recommended to adults, adolescents, and children. Eighteen (56.3%) countries recommended that an individual should be considered as unvaccinated where vaccination records were missing, and vaccines re-administered. Nine (28.1%) countries reported that specific vaccinations were mandatory. Conclusion: There is considerable variation in policies across Europe regarding approaches to vaccination in adult and child migrants, and a lack of clarity on optimum ways forward, what vaccines to offer, with a need for robust research in this area. More emphasis must be placed on ensuring migrant-specific guidance is disseminated to front-line healthcare professionals to improve vaccine delivery and uptake in diverse migration populations across the region.publishersversionPeer reviewe

A survey for variable young stars with small telescopes: II - mapping a protoplanetary disc with stable structures at 0.15 au

The HOYS citizen science project conducts long term, multifilter, high cadence monitoring of large YSO samples with a wide variety of professional and amateur telescopes. We present the analysis of the light curve of V1490 Cyg in the Pelican Nebula. We show that colour terms in the diverse photometric data can be calibrated out to achieve a median photometric accuracy of 0.02 mag in broadband filters, allowing detailed investigations into a variety of variability amplitudes over timescales from hours to several years. Using Gaia DR2 we estimate the distance to the Pelican Nebula to be 870 +70 −55 pc. V1490 Cyg is a quasi-periodic dipper with a period of 31.447 ± 0.011 d. The obscuring dust has homogeneous properties, and grains larger than those typical in the ISM. Larger variability on short timescales is observed in U and Rc−Hα, with U-amplitudes reaching 3 mag on timescales of hours, indicating the source is accreting. The Hα equivalent width and NIR/MIR colours place V1490 Cyg between CTTS/WTTS and transition disk objects. The material responsible for the dipping is located in a warped inner disk, about 0.15 AU from the star. This mass reservoir can be filled and emptied on time scales shorter than the period at a rate of up to 10−10 M�/yr, consistent with low levels of accretion in other T Tauri stars. Most likely the warp at this separation from the star is induced by a protoplanet in the inner accretion disk. However, we cannot fully rule out the possibility of an AA Tau-like warp, or occultations by the Hill sphere around a forming planet

Association of the PHACTR1/EDN1 genetic locus with spontaneous coronary artery dissection

Background: Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an increasingly recognized cause of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) afflicting predominantly younger to middle-aged women. Observational studies have reported a high prevalence of extracoronary vascular anomalies, especially fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) and a low prevalence of coincidental cases of atherosclerosis. PHACTR1/EDN1 is a genetic risk locus for several vascular diseases, including FMD and coronary artery disease, with the putative causal noncoding variant at the rs9349379 locus acting as a potential enhancer for the endothelin-1 (EDN1) gene. Objectives: This study sought to test the association between the rs9349379 genotype and SCAD. Methods: Results from case control studies from France, United Kingdom, United States, and Australia were analyzed to test the association with SCAD risk, including age at first event, pregnancy-associated SCAD (P-SCAD), and recurrent SCAD. Results: The previously reported risk allele for FMD (rs9349379-A) was associated with a higher risk of SCAD in all studies. In a meta-analysis of 1,055 SCAD patients and 7,190 controls, the odds ratio (OR) was 1.67 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.50 to 1.86) per copy of rs9349379-A. In a subset of 491 SCAD patients, the OR estimate was found to be higher for the association with SCAD in patients without FMD (OR: 1.89; 95% CI: 1.53 to 2.33) than in SCAD cases with FMD (OR: 1.60; 95% CI: 1.28 to 1.99). There was no effect of genotype on age at first event, P-SCAD, or recurrence. Conclusions: The first genetic risk factor for SCAD was identified in the largest study conducted to date for this condition. This genetic link may contribute to the clinical overlap between SCAD and FMD

Emerging borreliae – Expanding beyond Lyme borreliosis

Lyme borreliosis (or Lyme disease) has become a virtual household term to the exclusion of other forgotten, emerging or re-emerging borreliae. We review current knowledge regarding these other borreliae, exploring their ecology, epidemiology and pathological potential, for example, for the newly described B. mayonii. These bacteria range from tick-borne, relapsing fever-inducing strains detected in some soft ticks, such as B. mvumii, to those from bat ticks resembling B. turicatae. Some of these emerging pathogens remain unnamed, such as the borrelial strains found in South African penguins and some African cattle ticks. Others, such as B. microti and unnamed Iranian strains, have not been recognised through a lack of discriminatory diagnostic methods. Technical improvements in phylogenetic methods have allowed the differentiation of B. merionesi from other borrelial species that co-circulate in the same region. Furthermore, we discuss members that challenge the existing dogma that Lyme disease-inducing strains are transmitted by hard ticks, whilst the relapsing fever-inducing spirochaetes are transmitted by soft ticks. Controversially, the genus has now been split with Lyme disease-associated members being transferred to Borreliella, whilst the relapsing fever species retain the Borrelia genus name. It took some 60 years for the correlation with clinical presentations now known as Lyme borreliosis to be attributed to their spirochaetal cause. Many of the borreliae discussed here are currently considered exotic curiosities, whilst others, such as B. miyamotoi, are emerging as significant causes of morbidity. To elucidate their role as potential pathogenic agents, we first need to recognise their presence through suitable diagnostic approaches