Russia's War on Ukrainian Farms: The Black Sea Theater

Ukrainian agriculture is a central pillar of the country's economy and of its post-war recovery and reconstruction. Russia’s deliberate targeting of agricultural infrastructure and its naval blockade of the Black and Azov Seas have prevented Ukrainian grain from reaching world markets, threatening the global food system. Since Russia failed to renew its participation in the grain deal in July 2023, the Black Sea has become an increasingly contested space. Although Ukraine has unilaterally declared a maritime corridor and some commercial ships have defied Russia's warning that they may be targeted, in the absence of a new agreement on a Grain Corridor, this remains a perilous and risky path for Ukrainian grain. If there is hope for a new Grain Deal, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Türkiye, will likely be its broker. Erdoğan is interested in a normalization of food trade not only to shore up Türkiye's own food security, but because the country’s food-commodity trade relations with Europe and the Middle East make it a central node in the global food system

Facharztweiterbildung Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie: Problemorientiertes Lernen - Evaluation eines Modellprojekts

Zusammenfassung: Die Betonung individueller Lernbedürfnisse, der Fähigkeit zur Lösung komplexer klinischer Probleme sowie einer von interkollegialer Kommunikation geprägten professionellen Grundhaltung durch das problemorientierte Lernen (POL) spricht für dessen Eignung als didaktisches Format in der Facharztweiterbildung. Dennoch wurde es bisher selten hierfür eingesetzt. Im Rahmen dieses Modellprojektes wurde das POL in das Kurrikulum der strukturierten Facharztweiterbildung Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie aufgenommen und über einen Zeitraum von 12Monaten mittels strukturierter Fragebögen evaluiert. Es fanden im Evaluationszeitraum 41POL-Kurse statt, an denen insgesamt 447 Assistenzärzte teilnahmen. Die Teilnehmer und die Tutoren bewerteten 19 von 21 erfragten Aspekten der POL-Kurse als gut bis sehr gut (Mittelwert auf einer 5-stufigen Likert-Skala >4). Insgesamt wurde das POL als besonders geeignet für die Weiterbildung eingeschätzt (Teilnehmer 4,5±0,8; Tutoren 5,0±0,2). Die Ergebnisse dieses Modellprojekts sprechen für die Eignung des POL als Teil eines vielfältigen Weiterbildungsangebots, um den Praxisbezug und die Anwendbarkeit des Wissens im klinischen Alltag zu stärke

The enzymic synthesis of the sulfate esters of estradiol-17[beta] and diethylstilbesterol

The present study demonstrates the formation of three sulfate esters of estradiol and three of diethylstilbesterol by a microsome-free extract of rat liver.The sulfate esters were separated by paper chromatography using a potassium phosphate buffer solvent and detected by radioautography using 35S.Evidence is presented that the three sulfate esters of estradiol are estradiol-3-sulfate, estradiol-17-sulfate and estradiol-3,17-disulfate and that those of diethylstilbesterol are two isomeric monosulfate esters and the disulfate ester of diethylstilbesterol.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32279/1/0000341.pd

Studying ideational change in Russian politics with topic models and word embeddings

Peer reviewe

Russia in a changing climate

Climate change will shape the future of Russia, and vice versa, regardless of who rules in the Kremlin. The world\u27s largest country is warming faster than Earth as a whole, occupies more than half the Arctic Ocean coastline, and is waging a carbon-intensive war while increasingly isolated from the international community and its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Officially, the Russian government argues that, as a major exporter of hydrocarbons, Russia benefits from maintaining global reliance on fossil fuels and from climate change itself, because warming may increase the extent and quality of its arable land, open a new year-round Arctic sea route, and make its harsh climate more livable. Drawing on the collective expertise of a large group of Russia-focused social scientists and a comprehensive literature review, we challenge this narrative. We find that Russia suffers from a variety of impacts due to climate change and is poorly prepared to adapt to these impacts. The literature review reveals that the fates of Russia\u27s hydrocarbon-dependent economy, centralized political system, and climate-impacted population are intertwined and that research is needed on this evolving interrelationship, as global temperatures rise and the international economy decarbonizes in response. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance \u3e National Climate Change Policy Trans-disciplinary Perspectives \u3e National Reviews Trans-disciplinary Perspectives \u3e Regional Reviews. © 2023 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by Wiley Periodicals LLC

LES and RANS of air and oxy-coal combustion in a pilot-scale facility: predictions of radiative heat transfer

The development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is important to permit the use of fossil fuels while honouring commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Coal is a valuable global resource, which is widely available around the world, however its detrimental e ect on climate change will limit its use in a future with strict controls over carbon emissions. Oxyfuel combustion is a promising CCS technology that is being actively pursued in the development of large scale demonstration projects. Under the oxyfuel process for CCS, the combustion gas is replaced with a mixture of recycled ue gas and enriched oxygen. The resulting combustion environment can vary signi cantly from traditional air- red combustion. The development of modelling capabilities will greatly improve the optimisation process to develop oxyfuel technology into an economically viable prospect. This study evaluates the use of large eddy simulation (LES) and Reynoldsaveraged Navier Stokes (RANS) models on the prediction of thermal radiation during coal combustion for both air- red and oxyfuel operation in a pilot-scale 250 kWth furnace. The furnace is part of the UKCCSRC Pilot-scale Advanced Capture Technology (PACT) facilities and was designed for detailed analysis of the combustion process. Two radiation models were evaluated during the RANS calculations, the widely used weighted sum of grey gases (WSGG) andthe full-spectrum correlated k (FSCK) model, while the LES case was calculated using the FSCK radiation model. The results show that the LES solutions are in better agreement with measured values than the RANS predictions for both air- red and oxyfuel coal combustion, however LES demands considerably more computational resources

Surrender, catch and the imp of fieldwork

We build on the work of Kurt Wolff to capture some distinctive aspects of ethnographic fieldwork. Drawing on the sociology of knowledge and phenomenology, Wolff introduced and developed the idea of surrender-and- catch in order to encapsulate the twin processes of engagement and reflection. We extend the idea to incorporate what we call the 'imps’ of ethnographic fieldwork. For neither surrender nor catch are themselves predictable or perfectly under the ethnographer’s control. While fieldwork is itself unpredictable, there may be many unanticipated ‘catches’. Moreover, there is often an ethnographic ‘imp’ that intrudes itself, questioning the very desirability or good sense of the fieldwork itself. The imps arise unbidden but can pose searching, sometimes unwelcome – though ultimately productive – questions. We illustrate the paper from a brief fieldwork encounter with the world of studio photography

The impact of Curtin University's Activity, Food and Attitudes Program on physical activity, sedentary time and fruit, vegetable and junk food consumption among overweight and obese adolescents: A waitlist controlled trial

Background: To determine the effects of participation in Curtin University's Activity, Food and Attitudes Program (CAFAP), a community-based, family-centered behavioural intervention, on the physical activity, sedentary time, and healthy eating behaviours of overweight and obese adolescents. Methods: In this waitlist controlled clinical trial in Western Australia, adolescents (n = 69, 71% female, mean age 14.1 (SD 1.6) years) and parents completed an 8-week intervention followed by 12 months of telephone and text message support. Assessments were completed at baseline, before beginning the intervention, immediately following the intervention, and at 3-, 6-, and 12- months follow-up. The primary outcomes were physical activity and sedentary time assessed by accelerometers and servings of fruit, vegetables and junk food assessed by 3-day food records. Results: During the intensive 8-week intervention sedentary time decreased by −5.1 min/day/month (95% CI: −11.0, 0.8) which was significantly greater than the rate of change during the waitlist period (p = .014). Moderate physical activity increased by 1.8 min/day/month (95% CI: −0.04, 3.6) during the intervention period, which was significantly greater than the rate of change during the waitlist period (p = .041). Fruit consumption increased during the intervention period (monthly incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.3, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.56) and junk food consumption decreased (monthly IRR 0.8, 95% CI: 0.74, 0.94) and these changes were different to those seen during the waitlist period (p = .004 and p = .020 respectively). Conclusions: Participating in CAFAP appeared to have a positive influence on the physical activity, sedentary and healthy eating behaviours of overweight and obese adolescents and many of these changes were maintained for one year following the intensive intervention. Trial Registration: Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12611001187932