The constant migratory phenomena and the displacement of part of the world’s population from the countryside to the city are bringing great part of the agricultural workforce in the big cities, ...changing their work sector from agriculture to industry. In this context, theorists and promoters of urban farming have seen in this industry a powerful tool to find spaces suitable for cultivation within the urban fabric, while promoting a new green development of the city. Resuming the fascination of mega-structures proposed in the second half of the twentieth century, in the gap between utopia and dystopia, this essay investigates models and solutions for the integration of agricultural production systems within above-ground architectures, designed to meet the demand for new living spaces in future ultra-populated cities, as a possible response to the soil impoverishment that made it difficult to implement traditional farming systems in and around urban areas.
The current global food system is characterized by anonymity in the value chain, global food trade, loss of knowledge about food sources, and a distant producer-consumer relationship. In addition, ...the negative environmental impacts of the agricultural sector, such as pollution, degradation of soil and water quality, loss of biodiversity, and significant greenhouse gas emissions, make this sector a major driver of climate change. In contrast, the city region food system (CRFS) approach captures the complexity of a food system and its actors at the local level. It aims to meet the requirements of sustainable transformation along the food value chain and offers an alternative approach to the challenges of the global food system. However, the actors and their relationships in CRFS are rarely analyzed. To fill this gap, this study focuses on analyzing CRFSs as networks using the Net-Map tool to study different CRFS in seven European cities (Bologna, Naples, Lansingerland, Tenerife, Oslo, Dortmund, and Romainville). The aim of this paper is to concentrate on the method and to show how the Net-Map tool can effectively support the evaluation of the CRFS by identifying different actor roles, recognizing patterns of relationships. Additionally, the strengths and weaknesses of the network can be assessed by a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis. The paper highlights the limitations, advantages, and practical use of the Net-Map tool and discusses potential transferability to other case studies.
The growing urban population, climate change, and the scarcity of natural resources are major world-wide challenges. In the coming years, we must ensure that more food is available to feed Earth’s ...growing population. We need to reduce the pressures that agriculture places on the Earth. Urban agriculture, which means growing food in cities, evolved throughout human history. Urban agriculture promotes local and sustainable food systems. Agriculture in cities is good for the environment, the ecosystem, and the climate. Urban farming brings communities together and it improves the health of citizens. There are many good reasons for farming in the city!
New urban action, based on the development of green areas as a strategic tool for upgrading the city from an environmental, social and cultural point of view, is at its most innovative, the result of ...transversal initiatives at different levels by a variety of subjects. Experimentation and policies relating to the city and its neighbourhoods interact and are enriched in their relationship with local strategies and networks of punctual micro-interventions through spontaneous, bottom-up initiatives. This paper intends to highlight how today, in the varied design of the city, there is a common thread between large-scale planning experiences (municipal metropolitan plans), those on a neighbourhood scale of the Superillas, the Ville du Quart d’Heure and those on a small scale of Tactical Greenery. The common goal of creating green infrastructure for the future will be to permeate city living spaces.
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are the best characterized pattern recognition receptors. Individual TLRs recruit diverse combinations of adaptor proteins, triggering signal transduction pathways and ...leading to the activation of various transcription factors, including nuclear factor B, activation protein 1 and interferon regulatory factors. Interleukin-2 is one of the molecules produced by mouse dendritic cells after stimulation by different pattern recognition receptor agonists. By analogy with the events after T-cell receptor engagement leading to interleukin-2 production, it is therefore plausible that the stimulation of TLRs on dendritic cells may lead to activation of the Ca2+/calcineurin and NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cells) pathway. Here we show that mouse dendritic cell stimulation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces Src-family kinase and phospholipase C 2 activation, influx of extracellular Ca2+ and calcineurin-dependent nuclear NFAT translocation. The initiation of this pathway is independent of TLR4 engagement, and dependent exclusively on CD14. We also show that LPS-induced NFAT activation via CD14 is necessary to cause the apoptotic death of terminally differentiated dendritic cells, an event that is essential for maintaining self-tolerance and preventing autoimmunity. Consequently, blocking this pathway in vivo causes prolonged dendritic cell survival and an increase in T-cell priming capability. Our findings reveal novel aspects of molecular signalling triggered by LPS in dendritic cells, and identify a new role for CD14: the regulation of the dendritic cell life cycle through NFAT activation. Given the involvement of CD14 in disease, including sepsis and chronic heart failure, the discovery of signal transduction pathways activated exclusively via CD14 is an important step towards the development of potential treatments involving interference with CD14 functions.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Highlights ► rLPS induces Ca2+ mobilization in DCs in a CD14-independent manner. ► Unlike sLPS, rLPS is capable per se of activating the inflammasome in DCs. ► rLPS-exposed DCs are more efficient ...than sLPS-exposed DCs in activating NK cells. ► sLPS is slightly more efficient than rLPS in eliciting innate responses in vivo.
Hematopoietic cells express ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporters in relation to different degrees of differentiation. One of the known multidrug resistance mechanisms in acute myeloid leukemia ...(AML) is the overexpression of efflux pumps belonging to the superfamily of ABC transporters such as ABCB1, ABCG2 and ABCC1. Although several studies were carried out to correlate ABC transporters expression with drug resistance, little is known about their role as markers of diagnosis and progression of the disease. For this purpose we investigated the expression, by real-time PCR, of some ABC genes in bone marrow samples of AML patients at diagnosis and after induction therapy. At diagnosis, ABCG2 was always down-regulated, while an up regulated trend for ABCC1 was observed. After therapy the examined genes showed a different expression trend and approached the values of healthy subjects suggesting that this event could be considered as a marker of AML regression. The expression levels of some ABC transporters such as ABCC6, seems to be related to gender, age and to the presence of FLT3/ITD gene mutation.
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