Agriculture\u27s Fate under Climate Change: Economic and Environmental Imperatives For Action

Farming, ranching, and other agricultural activities are in a relatively unique position amongst all human-caused sources of global warming. Unlike fossil fueled power plants and vehicles, for example, agriculture will suffer direct economic losses from the impacts of global warming on its products, such as through reduced crop yields. Also unlike other causes of global warming, agriculture can both mitigate global warming and increase revenue through a range of different practices, such as carbon sequestration and investments in carbon-friendly renewable energy. This article explains how global warming affects agriculture, especially in the Midwest and Great Plains, and how agriculture contributes to global warming. The article also summarizes proposed federal climate change legislation and the Farm Bill\u27s carbon-cutting energy programs. Finally, the article explains why agriculture would do well to support comprehensive action to fight global warming, since the risks of inaction far outweigh any benefits

Agriculture\u27s Fate under Climate Change: Economic and Environmental Imperatives For Action

Farming, ranching, and other agricultural activities are in a relatively unique position amongst all human-caused sources of global warming. Unlike fossil fueled power plants and vehicles, for example, agriculture will suffer direct economic losses from the impacts of global warming on its products, such as through reduced crop yields. Also unlike other causes of global warming, agriculture can both mitigate global warming and increase revenue through a range of different practices, such as carbon sequestration and investments in carbon-friendly renewable energy. This article explains how global warming affects agriculture, especially in the Midwest and Great Plains, and how agriculture contributes to global warming. The article also summarizes proposed federal climate change legislation and the Farm Bill\u27s carbon-cutting energy programs. Finally, the article explains why agriculture would do well to support comprehensive action to fight global warming, since the risks of inaction far outweigh any benefits

Genetic architecture of 11 organ traits derived from abdominal MRI using deep learning.

Cardiometabolic diseases are an increasing global health burden. While socioeconomic, environmental, behavioural, and genetic risk factors have been identified, a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms is required to develop more effective interventions. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used to assess organ health, but biobank-scale studies are still in their infancy. Using over 38,000 abdominal MRI scans in the UK Biobank, we used deep learning to quantify volume, fat, and iron in seven organs and tissues, and demonstrate that imaging-derived phenotypes reflect health status. We show that these traits have a substantial heritable component (8-44%) and identify 93 independent genome-wide significant associations, including four associations with liver traits that have not previously been reported. Our work demonstrates the tractability of deep learning to systematically quantify health parameters from high-throughput MRI across a range of organs and tissues, and use the largest-ever study of its kind to generate new insights into the genetic architecture of these traits

TCR Gene Transfer: MAGE-C2/HLA-A2 and MAGE-A3/HLA-DP4 Epitopes as Melanoma-Specific Immune Targets

Adoptive therapy with TCR gene-engineered T cells provides an attractive and feasible treatment option for cancer patients. Further development of TCR gene therapy requires the implementation of T-cell target epitopes that prevent “on-target” reactivity towards healthy tissues and at the same time direct a clinically effective response towards tumor tissues. Candidate epitopes that meet these criteria are MAGE-C2336-344/HLA-A2 (MC2/A2) and MAGE-A3243-258/HLA-DP4 (MA3/DP4). We molecularly characterized TCRαβ genes of an MC2/A2-specific CD8 and MA3/DP4-specific CD4 T-cell clone derived from melanoma patients who responded clinically to MAGE vaccination. We identified MC2/A2 and MA3/DP4-specific TCR-Vα3/Vβ28 and TCR-Vα38/Vβ2 chains and validated these TCRs in vitro upon gene transfer into primary human T cells. The MC2 and MA3 TCR were surface-expressed and mediated CD8 T-cell functions towards melanoma cell lines and CD4 T-cell functions towards dendritic cells, respectively. We intend to start testing these MAGE-specific TCRs in phase I clinical trial

Current status of textile wastewater management practices and effluent characteristics in Tanzania

This research article published by IWA Publishing, 2021Textile wastewater from wet processing units is a major environmental problem. Most chemicals, including dyes, are only partly consumed, resulting in highly colored wastewater containing a variety of chemicals released into the environment. This paper gives information on the current management of textile wastewater in Tanzania. A semiquantitative analysis was done to identify the main types of chemicals used in wet processing units, wastewater characteristics and existing wastewater treatment methods in the textile industry. The performance evaluation of the existing wastewater treatment plants is also discussed. The advantages of integrating constructed wetlands with the existing treatment facilities for textile wastewater are explained. It has been observed that pretreatment and dying/printing of the fabrics are the main two processes that produce wastewater in many textile companies. Main pollutants are chemicals used from pretreatment and materials removed from de-sizing, bleaching and scouring processes. Dyes, printing pigments and dye auxiliaries are the main pollutants from the dyeing/printing process. Most of the textile companies in Tanzania are equipped with effluent treatment plants. Wastewater treatment plants have basically similar units, which are coagulation-flocculation, sedimentation through clarifiers and aerobic reactor. However, their effluents do not meet discharge limits stipulated by the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS)

Diffusive Evolution of Stable and Metastable Phases II: Theory of Non-Equilibrium Behaviour in Colloid-Polymer Mixtures

By analytically solving some simple models of phase-ordering kinetics, we suggest a mechanism for the onset of non-equilibrium behaviour in colloid-polymer mixtures. These mixtures can function as models of atomic systems; their physics therefore impinges on many areas of thermodynamics and phase-ordering. An exact solution is found for the motion of a single, planar interface separating a growing phase of uniform high density from a supersaturated low density phase, whose diffusive depletion drives the interfacial motion. In addition, an approximate solution is found for the one-dimensional evolution of two interfaces, separated by a slab of a metastable phase at intermediate density. The theory predicts a critical supersaturation of the low-density phase, above which the two interfaces become unbound and the metastable phase grows ad infinitum. The growth of the stable phase is suppressed in this regime.Comment: 27 pages, Latex, eps

Genetic architecture of 11 organ traits derived from abdominal MRI using deep learning

Cardiometabolic diseases are an increasing global health burden. While socioeconomic, environmental, behavioural, and genetic risk factors have been identified, a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms is required to develop more effective interventions. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used to assess organ health, but biobank-scale studies are still in their infancy. Using over 38,000 abdominal MRI scans in the UK Biobank, we used deep learning to quantify volume, fat, and iron in seven organs and tissues, and demonstrate that imaging-derived phenotypes reflect health status. We show that these traits have a substantial heritable component (8–44%) and identify 93 independent genome-wide significant associations, including four associations with liver traits that have not previously been reported. Our work demonstrates the tractability of deep learning to systematically quantify health parameters from high-throughput MRI across a range of organs and tissues, and use the largest-ever study of its kind to generate new insights into the genetic architecture of these traits

PAS Update aanvullende reservemaatregelen Landbouw

In many Natura 2000 area’s, the nitrogen deposition is higher than wished for. This led to a deadlock in economic development of,among others,livestock husbandry. For the three sector groups Traffic and Transportation, Industry and Energy, and Agriculture source measures were listedin 2017 to deal with the bottlenecks. For agriculture, the list with measures is updated in consultation with representatives of the agricultural sector, research and policy, developed and written in this present report. This study was performed by order of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food qualitybefore the Council of State made judgement regarding PAS

Vascular multiplicity should not be a contra-Indication for live kidney donation and transplantation

Background: Whether vascular multiplicity should be considered as contraindication and therefore 'extended donor criterion' is still under debate. Methods: Data from all live kidney donors from 2006-2013 (n=951) was retrospectively reviewed. Vascular anatomy as imaged by MRA, CTA or other modalities was compared with intraoperative findings. Furthermore, the influence of vascular multiplicity on outcome of donors and recipients was studied. Results: In 237 out of 951 donors (25%), vascular multiplicity was present. CTA had the highest accuracy levels regarding vascular anatomy assessment. Regarding outcome of donors with vascular multiplicity

Scintigraphic assessment of bone status at one year following hip resurfacing : comparison of two surgical approaches using SPECT-CT scan

Objectives: To study the vascularity and bone metabolism of the femoral head/neck following hip resurfacing arthroplasty, and to use these results to compare the posterior and the trochanteric-flip approaches. Methods: In our previous work, we reported changes to intra-operative blood flow during hip resurfacing arthroplasty comparing two surgical approaches. In this study, we report the vascularity and the metabolic bone function in the proximal femur in these same patients at one year after the surgery. Vascularity and bone function was assessed using scintigraphic techniques. Of the 13 patients who agreed to take part, eight had their arthroplasty through a posterior approach and five through a trochanteric-flip approach. Results: One year after surgery, we found no difference in the vascularity (vascular phase) and metabolic bone function (delayed phase) at the junction of the femoral head/neck between the two groups of patients. Higher radiopharmaceutical uptake was found in the region of the greater trochanter in the trochanteric-flip group, related to the healing osteotomy. Conclusions: Our findings using scintigraphic techniques suggest that the greater intra-operative reduction in blood flow to the junction of the femoral head/neck, which is seen with the posterior approach compared with trochanteric flip, does not result in any difference in vascularity or metabolic bone function one year after surgery