The challenge of systemic food change: Insights from cities

An emerging literature recognizes cities as the optimal scale for food policy innovation, pointing to their pervasive emphasis on the adoption of a systemic approach to address the complex socio-ecological issues that have disrupted the internal metabolism of the food system. To date, however, no empirical effort has been made to identify the meanings and goals attributed to such an approach by municipal actors who are concretely involved with its implementation. To begin to fill this gap, this paper analyzes data (collected through a semi-structured questionnaire and a focus group) from 33 cities across the globe as part of a project that aimed to understand how a systemic approach to food is interpreted and applied in different urban contexts and, more broadly, whether there is a gap between food systems theory and practice. The analysis highlights a widespread emphasis on food policy integration and on the creation of an inclusive governance context but it also uncovers low levels of engagement by city governments with key food system actors operating at higher governance scales. As the paper concludes, there are substantial knowledge gaps that raise the need for a new research and policy agenda focused on the dialectical relationships between ordinary food practices and infrastructural transformations to enhance understanding of the role of food in place-making processes and to meet the challenge of systemic food change

Commons-Based Governance under Uncertainty: The Role of Behaviours and Information

Una efficace governance dell'acqua di irrigazione è fondamentale per affrontare il futuro e la sostenibilità dei sistemi alimentari. I limiti alla gestione delle risorse idriche per la produzione primaria sono sempre più evidenti e complessità, incertezza e comportamenti umani ricevono sempre più considerazione. Per far fronte a questi fenomeni la comunità e le azioni collettive stanno emergendo come i domini più appropriati di analisi. Infatti la buona gestione di una risorsa condivisa dipende in gran parte da un'azione coordinata a livello individuale per ridurre la vulnerabilità del sistema a livello macro. Ma la cooperazione può essere in gioco quando si verificano cambiamenti imprevedibili e rapidi, minando in tal modo la capacità di resilienza e adattamento di una comunità. Nonostante la ricerca nel settore manca ancora la comprensione su fattori che favoriscono o limitano la cooperazione in condizioni di variabilità di una risorsa come l’acqua. Per contribuire a tale dibattito la presente ricerca si interessa a come i comportamenti cooperativi sono affetti dall’ incertezza e della conseguente interazione con i sistemi socio-ecologici. A tal fine proponiamo un modello che integra incertezza delle risorse disponibili, processi cognitivi e comportamenti sociali nel processo decisionale. Identifichiamo l'esperienza, l'accesso alle informazioni, la reciprocità e la rete come fattori di supporto a comportamenti cooperativi per utilizzatori delle risorse idriche in condizioni di incertezza di disponibilità.Effective irrigation water governance is crucial to address the future and sustainability of food systems. Limits to the governance of water resources for primary production are becoming more evident and complexity, uncertainty and human dimensions are receiving more consideration. To address these phenomena community level and collective actions issues are emerging as the most appropriate domains of analysis. In fact successful management of a shared resource largely depends on coordinated action at individual level that will reduce sector vulnerability at macro level. But cooperation can be at stake when unpredictable and rapid changes occur, thus undermining the capacity of community resiliency and adaptation. Despite the literature there is still lack of understanding concerning successful and constrains factors enabling cooperation under water changing conditions. To contribute the debate on how cooperative behaviours are affected by uncertainty and dig deeper in socio-ecological systems interactions, we propose an agent-based model integrating water resource uncertainty, cognitive processes and social behaviours into decision-making. We identify experience, access to information, reciprocity and network as factors supporting cooperative behaviours of resource users under water changing conditions

Silver Complexation by Metallacryptates

We report the first complete characterization of metallycryptates encapsulating Ag(i) cations: carboxylato ligands derived from l-proline and l-alanine chelate and bridge six Cu(ii) centres arranged in a slightly distorted octahedral fashion

Model study of the constituents of wall painting degradation patinas: The effect of the treatment with chelating agents on the solubility of the calcium salts

A model study on the application of chelating solutions on superficial calcium degradation patinas of wall paintings is presented. For this purpose the solubility of calcium sulfate, carbonate and oxalate in aqueous solutions of the Ca2 + chelators EDTA and citrate, was evaluated. Both the obtained solutions and their insoluble materials were analyzed by several analytical techniques. These studies revealed that the treatment of solid samples containing calcium sulfate and carbonate as the models of painting patinas resulted in higher solubilities of calcium sulfate and carbonate over that of oxalate. Moreover, our investigations confirmed the higher capacity of EDTA to chelate Ca2 + compared to that of citrate. All these results were interpreted and discussed on the basis of speciation models, solubility products of the salts and formation constants of the calcium complexes in solution. Finally, we report the characterization of a sodium calcium double citrate salt formed as an unexpected product in the treatment of the calcium sulfate with citrate. Overall our results suggest that the low solubility of calcium oxalate prevents its dissolution upon treatments with chelators, and that the capacity of citrate to dissolve the calcium salts is lower than that of EDTA irrespective of the duration of treatment

THE MILAN URBAN FOOD POLICY PACT: THE POTENTIAL OF FOOD AND THE KEY ROLE OF CITIES IN LOCALIZING SDGS

Food security for all is a non-negotiable goal to ensure human survival in a healthy planet. Advancing in this field requires a transition towards more integrated policies encompassing the complexity of the food paradigm and its multifuncitonality in a global context. Cities are now recognized as key food- actors and have reacted with place-based solution to the failures of national and global food related policies. Recent developments, like the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP), consolidate the role of cities as key players of the global food system and create a space for collaboration in which cities act with local solution to address global issues through a translocal approach that is redefining the concept of decentralised cooperation. Furthermore the MUFPP offers a vision of food security as key policy component able to underpin fair, inclusive and sustainable human development. Cities for long time have been responsible for the ecological decline of urban living conditions and yet they are hub of socio-ecological innovations from social kitchens to advanced business food models and integrated urban planning. This paper addresses some key questions related to the additional value that the MUFPP provides to cities and to the global agenda and what lever it can move to stimulate a change

Crystal structure of a novel type of odorant binding protein from Anopheles gambiae, belonging to the C+ class

International audienceAnopheles gambiae (Agam) relies on its olfactory system to target human prey, leading eventually to injection of Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria vector. Odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are the first line of proteins involved in odorant recognition. They interact with olfactory receptors and thus constitute an interesting target for insect control. We undertook a large-scale study of proteins belonging to the olfactory system of Agam with the aim of preventing insect bites by designing strong olfactory repellents. We determined the 3D structures of several Agam OBPs alone or in complex with model compounds. Here, we report the first 3D structure of a member of the OBP C+ class, AgamOBP47, which has a longer sequence than classical OBPs and contains 6 disulphide bridges. AgamOBP47 possesses a core of six a-helices and three disulphide bridges, similar to the classical OBP fold. Two extra loops and the N- and C-terminal extra segments contain two additional a-helices and are maintained together by three disulphide bridges. They are embrace the classical OBP core domain. The binding site of OBP47 is located between the core and the additional domains. Two crevices are observed on opposite sides of OBP47, which are joined together by a shallow channel of sufficient size to accommodate a model of the best tested ligand. The binding sites of C+ class OBPs exhibit therefore different characteristics of their binding site, as compared to classical OBPs, which should leave to markedly diverse functional implications

Role of the Cysteine in R3 Tau Peptide in Copper Binding and Reactivity

Tau is a widespread neuroprotein that regulates the cytoskeleton assembly. In some neurological disorders, known as tauopathies, tau is dissociated from the microtubule and forms insoluble neurofibrillary tangles. Tau comprises four pseudorepeats (R1-R4), containing one (R1, R2, R4) or two (R3) histidines, that potentially act as metal binding sites. Moreover, Cys291 and Cys322 in R2 and R3, respectively, might have an important role in protein aggregation, through possible disulfide bond formation, and/or affecting the binding and reactivity of redox-active metal ions, as copper. We, therefore, compare the interaction of copper with octadeca-R3-peptide (R3C) and with the mutant containing an alanine residue (R3A) to assess the role of thiol group. Spectrophotometric titrations allow to calculate the formation constant of the copper(I) complexes, showing a remarkable stronger interaction in the case of R3C (log K-f = 13.4 and 10.5 for copper(I)-R3C and copper(I)-R3A, respectively). We also evaluate the oxidative reactivity associated to these copper complexes in the presence of dopamine and ascorbate. Both R3A and R3C peptides increase the capability of copper to oxidize catechols, but copper-R3C displays a peculiar mechanism due to the presence of cysteine. HPLC-MS analysis shows that cysteine can form disulfide bonds and dopamine-Cys covalent adducts, with potential implication in tau aggregation process

Design of 2D Porous Coordination Polymers Based on Metallacrown Units

A 12‐metallacrown‐4 (MC) complex was designed and employed as the building block in the synthesis of coordination polymers, one of which is the first permanently porous MC architecture. The connection of the four‐fold symmetric MC subunits by CuII nodes led to the formation of 2D layers of metallacrowns. Channels are present in the crystalline architecture, which exhibits permanent porosity manifested in N2 and CO2 uptake capacity.Permanently porous metallacrowns: Metallacrowns have been exploited for the first time as tailored building blocks for the construction of new (porous) coordination polymers. Metallacrowns are metal‐rich complexes that have exhibited excellent properties in magnetism and luminescence. Benefiting from high‐interest metallacrown building blocks in the synthesis of MOFs can unfold a whole new class of functional materials (see figure).Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137586/1/chem201600562-sup-0001-misc_information.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137586/2/chem201600562.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137586/3/chem201600562_am.pd

Gallium(III)-pyridoxal thiosemicarbazone derivatives as nontoxic agents against Gram-negative bacteria

Many bacterial strains are developing mechanism of resistance to antibiotics, rendering last-resort antibiotics inactive. Therefore, new drugs are needed and in particular metal-based compounds represent a valid starting point to explore new antibiotic classes. In this study, we have chosen to investigate gallium(III) complexes for their potential antimicrobial activity against different strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa which have developed different type of resistance mechanism, including the expression of beta-lactamases (NDM-1, ES beta L, or AmpC) or the production of biofilm. We studied a series of thiosemicarbabazones derived from pyridoxal, their related Ga(III) complexes, and the speciation in solution of the Ga(III)/ligand systems as a function of the pH. Proton dissociation constants and conditional stability constants of Ga(III) complexes were evaluated by UV/Vis spectroscopy, and the most relevant species at physiological pH were identified. The compounds are active against resistant Gram-negative strain with minimal inhibitory concentration in the mu M range, while no cytotoxicity was detected in eukaryotic cells